You Loved Me First
by TheQueenMermaid
Summary: A series of one-shots chronicling firsts in Sofia's life. Main pairing is Callie/Arizona; will also feature Mark/Lexie and other canon pairings.
1. CheererUpper: September 2011

**Disclaimer:** All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.

**Quick A/N:** The_ Grey's_ timeline confuses me greatly, so I tweaked it to fit my own purposes. If Sofia was actually born at the end of March and three months went by before she left the hospital, and then let's say at least another few weeks went by before Callie and Arizona got married, the wedding would've been in June or July. After much internal debate as to whether I wanted to change Sofia's birthday or the date of the wedding, I ultimately decided that Callie and Arizona got married in the summer, and Sofia was actually born on March 31. Also, many super-thanks to Jess/Hylen, my beta, who is not only crazy fast but who also just generally wins at life. 3

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><p>Part 1<br>_September 2011_

"Ugh!" Arizona groaned, flopping onto the couch in the attendings' lounge. "This is the worst day ever!"

Owen Hunt quirked an eyebrow from the coffee maker in the corner. "Rough shift?"

"I got paged here at three yesterday morning and I haven't left yet."

Looking at the clock, Owen saw that it was almost noon. Arizona had been at work for over thirty hours. "Ouch."

Arizona nodded. "The child I was paged here for didn't make it through his surgery."

"I'm sorry," Owen said genuinely, sitting down across from Arizona. Losing patients was never easy; he knew that. Even when you knew there was nothing more you could have done, as a doctor, you still ended up shouldering far more than your share of the responsibility. Owen also knew that Arizona was the type of person who took it personally when she lost a patient. She prided herself on being an excellent doctor and performing miracles. Unlike other surgeons whose patients had at least had a chance to live a little, Arizona's patients were just starting out in life. She took it upon herself to see that those lives would be carried out in full. Add to the equation the fact that she was a relatively new mother and that she was currently functioning on less than the bare minimum of sleep, and Owen knew she had to be hurting. "Anything I can do?"

Arizona sighed. "Can you get me a cup of coffee? I don't think I can get up."

Owen chuckled. He definitely knew what that was like, and he was happy to oblige. He poured another cup of coffee, handed it to Arizona, and sat back down.

"Thanks." Enjoying the warmth in her hands, she blew on the coffee. "Then, if that weren't bad enough, I have an eight-year-old on the transplant list for a new heart and if she doesn't get it soon, she isn't going to make it to her ninth birthday. And of course in order for her to get it, another child has to die, so I can't really feel good about it either way, can I?" Owen could sense that Arizona wasn't looking for him to respond, so he let her keep talking. "I've performed seven surgeries already and I am nowhere near done, and yet I'm so tired I can't even imagine standing up again. And I haven't seen Callie since I got paged, and she has the day off today and gets to play with Sofia all day while I'm stuck here. God, I miss them." She paused to take a sip of coffee. "And this coffee tastes like chalk."

Owen smiled sympathetically. "How much longer are you on?"

"Four hours. I can make it four hours, right? Tell me I can make it four hours."

"You can make it four hours," Owen promised. "You're good for at least two if you hide out in here. And hey, I'm sorry about your kids. But just remember when you get home, you've got a wife and daughter waiting for you. If I'm really lucky, Cristina might make toast."

The mention of Callie and Sofia never failed to make Arizona smile. Six-month-old Sofia filled her heart with joy. She was at the age now when grabbing things – usually people's hair and jewelry – brought her infinite happiness. Arizona also loved the way Sofia's eyes would fix on her whenever she was in the room and would follow her every movement as long as she was around, no matter who was holding her. Even at such a young age, it was clear she recognized Arizona as her mother. While she loved Mark and positively adored Callie, there had been several nights now when Sofia just wouldn't go back to sleep unless Arizona held her.

Sofia was still small for her age and she hadn't reached all of her developmental milestones yet. She wasn't sitting up on her own, crawling, or making any attempts at words. Arizona knew it worried Callie, but she almost didn't care. To her, Sofia was absolutely perfect. If she never spoke a word in her life, Arizona knew she wouldn't love her any less. Sofia knew all of the important things. She gurgled and smiled when she saw any one of her parents. She had a special affinity for grabbing Cristina's hair, and for reasons no one could discern, she greatly enjoyed patting Miranda Bailey's face whenever she got the chance. Maybe she didn't do most of the things other babies her age did, but Arizona could tell that even at six months, Sofia loved more profoundly and more purely than a lot of adults she'd met.

Arizona's reverie was interrupted when her pager went off. Sighing, she forced herself off the couch.

She could make it four more hours.

* * *

><p>"Come on, you can do it." Callie sat on the floor of the apartment she and Arizona shared, propped up against the couch with Sofia in her lap, facing her. "Ready? Let's try it again." She removed her hands from Sofia's back, encouraging the baby to sit on her own. Callie reached out to catch her when she started to flop to the left. "Come on, baby. Just sit for ten seconds. Five seconds, even. You can do it." She tried again and sighed as Sofia pitched backwards. Callie picked the baby up and kissed her stomach. "Maybe tomorrow, hmm?"<p>

Sofia gurgled and flailed a hand at Callie's cheek.

"I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you didn't just punch me in the face." Callie adored Sofia with everything she had. While she'd been conceived during a dark time in Callie's life, and while the circumstances of her entrance into the world weren't what she'd hoped for by any stretch of the imagination, that baby was the absolute light of Callie's life – followed closely, of course, by Arizona. Callie and Sofia shared a special bond, one she could tell would only strengthen as Sofia got older. Sofia had gotten into the habit of holding her arms out for Callie when she saw her. She responded with smiles to the sound of Callie's voice over the phone. Her favorite place to fall asleep was squarely in the middle of Callie's chest.

So, it was out of love that Callie worried. She desperately wanted Sofia to have a normal life, one that wasn't forever defined by the complications of being born so early. The doctor in Callie knew that it was perfectly normal, expected even, for Sofia to be a couple months behind in her development. She was happy, as healthy now as any other baby, and downright adorable. The doctor in Callie also knew that Sofia was more than likely to catch up eventually. But the mother in her wanted her to catch up _now_.

Callie kissed Sofia again, on the cheek this time. "We should eat something," she said. "Get your strength up. Build up those sitting muscles."

She was standing in the kitchen waiting for Sofia's bottle to warm up, bouncing the baby in her arms to the rhythm of a song in her head, when Arizona came through the door.

"Hey!" Callie said brightly. "We missed you today. She's still not sitting up, but I think tomorrow maybe –" Callie stopped talking when she saw Arizona's face – tired, drawn, and forlorn, with just a touch of red around her eyes. Callie reached out with the hand that wasn't holding Sofia and laid it on Arizona's arm. "Hey, what's wrong?" she asked softly.

"I'm fine. Just…" she let out a shuddering breath. "Long couple of days." She turned her attention to Sofia. "Hi, baby girl." Sofia smiled and gurgled, and Arizona managed a small smile of her own.

Callie drew Arizona in for a kiss. "I'm sorry. I love you." She kissed her once on the lips and once on the forehead. "Better?"

"Getting there," Arizona said. She bent down and kissed Sofia's head. "I'm gonna take a shower. I won't be long."

"We'll be here," Callie promised. Once Arizona was out of earshot, she turned to the baby in her arms. "Mommy's sad," she said matter-of-factly. "What are we going to do about that?" Sofia smacked her lips and kicked her feet. "Oh, eating is your answer to everything."

* * *

><p>Feeling much more human after her shower, Arizona suddenly couldn't get back to Callie and Sofia fast enough. She slipped into a pair of sweatpants, a tank top, and a pair of hot pink socks. She reached for the place her favorite sweatshirt would normally be, but it wasn't there. Callie must have washed it and not put it back. She bounced into the living room, where Callie sat on the couch, watching Sofia on a blanket on the floor in front of her.<p>

"Callie, have you seen my – whoa!" Callie looked up just as Arizona slipped mid-bounce in her sock feet and fell gracelessly on her backside.

Callie bit back a laugh at the affronted look on Arizona's face and made her way over to where she'd landed. "Oh my god, are you okay?" She hoped she sounded sympathetic.

Arizona was about to answer when they heard it: a giggle, quickly transforming into a deep belly laugh. Sofia, lying on her stomach, was grinning widely and shaking with laughter.

"Sofia, oh my god," Callie whispered, suddenly breathless. "Are you…you're laughing! You've never done that before!" Arizona was too awestruck to get up off the floor, but Callie immediately left Arizona's side and picked Sofia up, peppering her face with kisses. "It was funny when Mommy fell down, huh?"

"Oh, sure," Arizona said. "Laugh at Mommy's expense." But there was no hiding Arizona's smile, lighting up her whole face. She would gladly fall on her ass every day for the rest of her life if it meant she could keep hearing that sound.

Sofia giggled some more as Callie continued kissing her face. It seemed that now that the flood gates had been opened, there'd be no closing them again. Callie gently placed her back down on her blanket on the floor, encouraging her to sit up one more time. For a moment it looked promising, but then Sofia flopped to the side and landed in a heap. She laughed again, a sound like the pealing of a bell coming from deep within her.

Callie gazed reverently at her for another few seconds before turning back to Arizona. "Seriously, are you okay?"

"I definitely am now," she said softly. "Now help your wife up off the floor, would you?" She extended an arm, imploring Callie to pull her up, which she did.

"Now do you see why I'm skeptical about the Heelies?"

"The floor is slippery!" Arizona defended. "Heelies are _shoes_. They're much safer."

"Right," Callie said. "Sure they are. You know, Sofia's never going to sit up now that she's realized how funny it is when people fall over."

"Don't worry," Arizona said reassuringly, placing a hand on the small of Callie's back. "She'll sit up when she wants to. She can. She _will_. Right now it's just not on her list of priorities. Look at her. Obviously eating her hand is much more important."

Callie laughed, which in turn encouraged Sofia to remove her hand from her mouth and laugh in response. She put her arm around Arizona's shoulders and hugged her gently. "I'm sorry you had a bad day," she said, kissing her temple.

"Mm," Arizona murmured, leaning into Callie. "It's all better now. Thank you. I love you." She turned to Sofia. "Thank you, baby." Moving away from Callie, Arizona bent down and scooped Sofia into her arms. "Mommy's little cheerer-upper. But don't think I'll be falling on my butt for you every day. That's just for special occasions." She blew a raspberry on the baby's stomach.

Nestled in Arizona's loving arms, Sofia looked up at her, pumped her feet, and laughed.


	2. That Day: March 2012

This bit is a.) long, b.) a little angsty, and c.) ultimately super cute, or at least I hope it is. This was also my first attempt at writing a scene with so many people in it (honestly, I don't know how screenwriters do it), so I hope it works. Dearest Jess/Hylen, thank you for imparting your beta wisdom and for being awesome. This does contain some spoilers for the season 7 finale, but only very slight ones, and at the time I wrote it, they were just wishful thinking, so yay. (This also contains some speculation for things that I hope will happen next season. Shonda and Co., I hope you're taking notes.)

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><p>Part 2<br>_March 2012_

Arizona glanced at the clock on her nightstand and groaned. 6:30 AM. She hadn't managed to sleep more than a couple hours at a time, and heaven knew she'd tried. But even Callie sleeping beside her, snoring ever so softly, hadn't kept the nightmares away last night.

Callie lying, bloody and broken, on the hood of her car.

"You're nothing."

"She might never wake up."

Callie flat-lining. Arizona watching helplessly from the gallery. "Starting cardiac massage." Her body ripped open and exposed.

An impossibly tiny baby with no heartbeat.

Arizona, all alone.

Of course, the dreams never ended the way things had actually turned out. Arizona either woke up before anything could be resolved, or she encountered an alternate reality that was too horrible to consider after waking. But the taste in her mouth was always the same: fear. Desperation. Crushing guilt.

Callie only knew about the dreams what Arizona had told her, which was just that sometimes she still dreamt about That Day and That Night and it was awful. Usually, Callie's calming presence and reassurances that she wasn't going anywhere were enough to ease Arizona back into sleep. Last night there'd been no such luck. Callie had gotten home late from the hospital and had been so tired when she'd finally crawled into bed that Arizona hadn't had the heart to wake her. Instead she tossed, turned, whimpered, cried, and woke up drenched in cold sweat so many times she lost count.

This morning marked one year since That Day, and the dreams, as if recognizing that fact, came out in full force. Arizona couldn't remember them ever being this bad. She had felt anxious for much of the past week, knowing this anniversary was coming, but she didn't allow herself to slip into the mindset she'd been in on That Day. She wouldn't let the dreams touch her waking hours, so she pushed those scared, desperate, guilty thoughts away and soldiered on. She stayed strong. For Callie, for Sofia, for Mark, for her patients, she stayed strong.

Funny, this morning she didn't feel very strong at all.

She groaned again, burrowing under the covers and pulling her pillow over her head. Maybe if she hid in bed and stayed quiet and still, the day would forget she was there and leave her alone.

Callie stirred next to her. "Hmm…Arizona?"

"Callie, go back to sleep," Arizona said from under her pillow. "It's barely light out."

"I'm not tired anymore," Callie replied. "Sofia will be up soon anyway. Do you think she knows it's her birthday?"

Arizona's breath caught in her throat. Unconsciously, she shifted away from Callie in the bed.

"Arizona? What's going on under there?"

Should she say it? She didn't really want to talk about it. She and Callie had talked about That Day. They hadn't gone into a great deal of depth in their conversations; after all, neither of them particularly wanted to relive it, but they'd hashed out the important things: Callie was okay, Sofia was okay, no one was to blame, and the past was the past. But today _was_ That Day. In Arizona's mind, the fact that it was also Sofia's birthday was an unfortunate coincidence and a constant reminder of everything she'd almost lost. "I can't," she finally said. "I can't celebrate today. I can't do it. I'm sorry."

Gently, Callie pried the pillow out of Arizona's hands and off of her face. "You had a bad night." It wasn't a question, but Arizona nodded anyway. Smoothing Arizona's hair, Callie asked, "Why didn't you wake me up?"

Arizona wouldn't look at Callie. "You were tired."

"I'm a surgeon and I have a one-year old with teeth starting to come in. When am I not tired?"

Arizona chuckled mirthlessly. "I just…couldn't."

"Arizona…"

"It's been a year, Calliope. A whole year. I know you're fine and Sofia's fine and it's her birthday and we should be celebrating. But I can't celebrate the anniversary of the scariest, worst day of my life. I just can't."

"Worst day of your life?" Callie asked incredulously. "I know it was scary, but it was also the day we got engaged. The day you saved our daughter's life. And now it's her birthday. We're celebrating her first birthday because of you."

Arizona let out a choked sob. "She's a year old," she rasped. "She's a year old and she's the size of a nine-month-old. She's not talking, she's not walking. She crawls, kind of. She sits up, laughs, and claps her hands. What if that's all she ever does? What if I ruined her forever? What if she never –"

"I see it's your turn to be the crazy one today," Callie quipped. "What do you tell me all the time? She'll talk when she has something to say. She'll walk when she has somewhere to go. She's perfect the way she is. She's perfect and you saved her."

"But what if –"

"Don't. Just let me be the crazy one, okay? I'm good at it."

Arizona sat up in bed, moving away from Callie again. She stared at her lap. "Callie…I'm so sorry." Her voice broke as tears began to run down her cheeks.

"Hey. Come here." Callie drew Arizona into her arms as she completely broke down. "Let it out," she whispered, dragging her nails lightly up and down Arizona's back. "Oh, Arizona. How long have you been holding this in?"

"I almost lost you!" Arizona sobbed into Callie's chest. "I almost killed you both! The two people I love more than anything in the world and I nearly _killed_ you!" She paused to take a shuddering breath. "I used to dream about the tiny coffins, you know? And now I dream about you flying through the – and-and Mark saying – and the hole in your – and Sofia – and-and sometimes I still see the tiny coffins, except now Sofia is –"

She let out a guttural, heart-wrenching cry and Callie felt a few of her own tears slip out. She'd known Arizona struggled with memories of That Day. She knew about the dreams, but Arizona had never discussed them in this much depth before. They had talked during the months Callie had spent recovering; she told Arizona over and over that nothing that had happened was her fault. She knew Arizona carried guilt and was haunted by her fight with Mark, but Arizona and Mark had since made their peace and Callie thought they'd all moved past everything else. Since bringing Sofia home, everything had happened at once: there'd been a wedding to plan and families to deal with. Arizona kept busy at the hospital with the children from Malawi. Callie had returned to work and she, Arizona, and Mark worked out a schedule for watching Sofia. Then, every time they turned around, something was going on. Teddy decided not to go to Germany. Sofia learned how to roll over. Meredith and Derek legally adopted Zola. Sofia laughed for the first time. Mark and Lexie finally got back together. Sofia sat up on her own. She started eating baby food and subsequently moved on to some solids. She figured out a combination of crawling and slithering to propel herself around. Callie and Arizona barely had time to blink, let alone ruminate on memories of That Day. Through everything, Arizona hadn't faltered even in the slightest. She'd been unwaveringly strong. Yes, she had bad dreams and occasionally teared up when she thought no one was looking, but she _always_ put on a brave face, and Callie had never seen her fall apart like this. It was heartbreaking.

"I mean," Arizona continued through her tears, "you both almost –"

"We didn't," Callie interrupted gently, rocking them slowly. "I came back to you. I'll always come back to you."

"I'm sorry," Arizona cried again. "I'm so, so sorry."

"Arizona, look at me." Arizona pressed her face further into Callie's chest. "_Look_ at me." Reluctantly, she did. "You don't have _anything_ to be sorry for. _Nothing_ that happened that day was your fault."

"But –"

"No. We talked about this. Not. Your. Fault." Arizona sighed. "I'm sorry you've been hurting like this. I know you've been being strong for me, but I know how strong you are. You don't have to prove anything." Callie paused to make sure what she was saying really sunk in. She heard Arizona sniffle a couple times. "We have a happy, healthy gorgeous baby. That's because of _you_. And today we're going to celebrate her birthday, because birthdays should be happy. We're going to have a little party for her and give her some presents she doesn't need, and then she's going to eat a cupcake, smear it on her face, and fall asleep. We're going to make today a happy memory."

"Who's coming today, by the way?"

"Mark, Lexie, Cristina…she'll bring Meredith, so Zola…Teddy…you know, the family."

"Mark's going to be the only man?"

Callie laughed. "Derek and Owen are working. Karev might come. Depends on how well you bribed him." Arizona giggled softly.

They sat in silence for another couple of minutes, Callie still rocking Arizona slowly in her arms and drawing lazy circles on her back. "How're you doing?" she finally asked.

"Better," Arizona said. "It's just a hard day. It probably always will be, at least a little."

"I know."

"I'll probably never stop apologizing."

"I know."

"Or worrying."

"Me either."

"Even when she's thirty."

"You know, I was feeding her yesterday and she looked at me and blew a raspberry in my face. Tongue out and everything. Then she cracked up laughing and clapped. She was freaking _applauding_ herself. She's getting this stuff from you, by the way."

Arizona at least had the decency to look mildly offended, even if the statement was completely true.

A loud cry sounded over the baby monitor. Callie laughed. "Do you think she knew we were talking about her?"

"I'll get her," Arizona offered, shifting in Callie's arms.

"No, that's okay. I'll get her. Why don't you try to get some more sleep?"

"Are you sure? I don't mind."

"I'm sure." Callie kissed the tear tracks on Arizona's face. "You need some good sleep." Sofia whimpered on the baby monitor, but Callie kept her hold on Arizona for another moment. "I _love_ you," she whispered, hugging Arizona fiercely. "No more bad dreams, okay?"

Arizona smiled. "Okay." Disentangling herself from Callie's arms, she lay back down and let Callie tuck her in. She yawned. She had to admit, sleeping sounded like a pretty good idea. "Love you," she murmured, already drifting off.

Sofia wailed loudly again, obviously hungry.

"Alright, alright!" Callie called. "I'm coming!"

* * *

><p>While Callie, Arizona, Mark, and Teddy all fawned over Sofia in the kitchen, Meredith, Cristina, and Alex sat in an awkward row on the living room couch. Meredith and Alex were back on speaking terms, but most of what they said to each other was either strictly medical or not particularly kind. Lexie sat on the coffee table in front of them. Meredith bounced two-year-and-two-month-old Zola in her lap. Zola played with a balloon. She generally liked being around other kids, but with Sofia commanding all the attention, she decided she'd rather hang out with her mother and Aunt Lexie. Besides, she had a balloon.<p>

Cristina finally broke the silence. "So…what are we supposed to do?"

"It's a birthday party," Meredith said. "We're celebrating."

"Yeah, a baby birthday party," Alex added. "It's different when we're not getting drunk. Sober parties are weird."

"So, what?" Cristina asked. "We sit around and tell Callie, Arizona, and Mark how cute their kid is?"

"Well, you probably should, at least." Lexie finally spoke. "You're her godmother. You should be in there." She motioned toward the kitchen.

"No way," Cristina said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Not while Altman's in there."

"I thought you two weren't fighting anymore," Meredith said.

"No, but we still hate each other. We don't interact at social functions."

"This is boring!" Alex whispered. "How long do we have to stay? I mean, I know it's Sofia's birthday and she's really cute, but she doesn't _know_ it's her birthday. And nobody's _doing_ anything."

As if on cue, Callie walked into the living room. "Hey, guys. Thanks again for coming." She smiled at Zola. "Hey, Zola. Having fun?"

"Yeah!" Zola chirped from Meredith's lap. "Happy birfday, Callie!"

Callie laughed. "It's not my birthday, silly."

"Happy birfday, balloon!"

"Close enough," Cristina allowed.

"Anyway," Callie said, "I just came in to tell you we're gonna do cake in a minute. I think Sofia knows there's chocolate in the house."

Cristina sat up straighter. "I want chocolate." Maybe there was a benefit in coming to this party after all. "Godmother privileges dictate that I get the first piece."

Alex scoffed. "Godmother privileges. Yeah, right."

Arizona appeared in the living room with a platter of cupcakes. The one in the middle had a candle in it. Mark followed, carrying Sofia, who was dressed in a frilly pink dress. If there was any lingering doubt as to whether she was Arizona's child, it was immediately alleviated upon seeing her in that dress and matching headband.

Teddy emerged from the kitchen with a lighter. "Ready? I have fire."

"Um, before we do," Arizona said, placing the platter on the coffee table behind Lexie, "I just want to say how much we appreciate you all being here. I know Derek and Owen couldn't make it, but they're here in spirit today, and it just means a lot to me –" she glanced at Callie – "to _us_ – that you're all here. Today is…well, it's a difficult day for me, but I just want you to know how personally grateful I am to all of you that we're standing here celebrating our daughter's birthday." She grabbed Callie's hand and tried to keep her voice steady. "A year ago today I very nearly lost everything." She paused, reluctantly allowing a tear to slip out. "But today I have a beautiful wife standing here next to me, an incredible daughter whose birthday we're celebrating and a…Mark Sloan." She smiled at him. "I'm here today with a – a _whole family_ thanks to all of you. So, thank you. Thank you for today." Everyone was uncharacteristically quiet as Arizona turned slightly and wiped away a couple more tears that had managed to slip. Alex cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. Lexie ducked her head as a few tears of her own escaped. Cristina placed a hand over Meredith's. Teddy slid an arm around Callie's shoulders.

"No cry!" Zola said, hopping down from Meredith's lap and affixing herself to Arizona's leg. "Zona. No cry!"

It was hard to disobey a command like that.

Arizona sniffled and laughed. "Thank you, sweetie," she said, squatting down to Zola's level and hugging her.

If Sofia could talk, she would have said, "Mommy, it's my birthday and you're hugging _her_?" As it was, she squawked indignantly.

"I didn't forget you, baby." Arizona stood back up and squeezed Sofia's foot. In an attempt to make sure Arizona didn't cheat on her with any other babies, Sofia grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled. Arizona winced. "Ow. I'm only letting you get away with that because it's your birthday. And you're cute. And I love you."

"Love you!" Zola parroted, running over to Lexie and jumping onto her shoulder.

"Oof!" Lexie grunted. "I love you too, missy. Come here." She reached around and wrestled Zola into her lap.

"Okay!" Mark cleared his throat and bounced Sofia in his arms. The baby laughed. "As someone said at some point in history, 'let them eat cake!'"

"It was Marie Antoinette, Mark," Lexie informed him. "And she wasn't giving anyone cake. What she actually meant was –"

"Little Grey, there's chocolate," Cristina said. "Nobody cares."

Teddy stepped forward and struck the lighter, drawing the flame to the candle. Sofia looked around the room, wide-eyed, as eight adults serenaded her with the requisite chorus of "Happy Birthday" in eight different keys. When she heard her name sung loudly, she squealed happily and clapped her hands.

"Make a wish, birthday girl," Callie said, leaning over and kissing Sofia's head.

"But don't tell anyone what it is," Arizona warned, "or it won't come true."

"Zola," Callie said. "Do you want to help Sofia blow her candle out?"

"Wanna help?" she asked, smiling broadly. She turned to Meredith, silently asking permission.

"Go ahead," Meredith said. "Show her how."

Zola approached the other side of the coffee table. She looked up at Sofia, watching her intently from Mark's arms. "'Fia, look. Wanna help." She blew out the candle and everyone clapped, including Sofia. Suddenly shy, Zola ran and hid behind Teddy's legs. "Happy birfday, Teddy!" Teddy laughed, bent down, and scooped Zola into her arms, tickling the little girl as she shrieked happily.

"Okay, Mark, give me my baby," Callie finally demanded. "You've held her long enough. It's my turn."

"Oh, fine," Mark sighed dramatically. Gazing at Sofia, he said, "Mama misses you, Sof. Even though she's standing right there. So I'm gonna hand you over now, but you have to give Daddy a kiss first." He leaned down and kissed Sofia's head. Sofia responded by blowing a slobbery raspberry on Mark's cheek. "Happy birthday, munchkin," he said, handing the baby to Callie. "Daddy loves you." He sat down beside Lexie as Arizona started handing out cupcakes.

"You're a good father," she told him, leaning into his side. "I know I tell you that every time you're with her, but you are. She loves you."

The room fell into comfortable conversation; Cristina and Meredith gossiped while Alex and Teddy entertained Zola with balloons and a stuffed animal. Lexie and Mark chatted quietly, stealing kisses when they thought no one was paying attention. Callie and Arizona took turns laughing and taking pictures as Sofia smeared cupcake all over her face, just as Callie had predicted.

* * *

><p>Nearly all traces of chocolate were gone from Sofia's face when Arizona set her down on the floor amid a sea of opened birthday presents. Teddy had gotten paged and had to leave, but her gift, a scrapbook of photos taken over the last year, sat proudly on the coffee table. From Alex there was a stuffed dog, very realistic and about the size of three Sofias. There were two dresses, one in a blue floral pattern and one in a pretty lavender, from the Grey-Shepherd family ("Zola picked them out," Meredith had said). Also on the coffee table was a framed picture of Cristina and Sofia cuddling. The frame had "World's Best Godmother" printed on it. There was also a small quilt from Arizona's parents, and Callie's father had sent a video camera, instructing Callie and Arizona to record everything Sofia did (and subsequently send the recordings to him). Mark and Lexie's gift was across the hall, a rocking horse to be used when Sofia was older. And Arizona, in the free time Callie didn't know she had, had knit a blanket. Such an adept knitter was she that she had knitted a butterfly pattern into it and had even spelled out Sofia's name along the top. Arizona had ever so graciously allowed Callie to go in on the gift with her, but Callie had also given Sofia a musical mobile to put above her crib. All in all, the one-year-old had made out pretty well.<p>

Sofia surveyed the presents, decided she wasn't interested in any of them, and lunged for a balloon on the floor. Unfortunately, she came at it with a little too much gusto, and the balloon popped loudly underneath her. Sofia startled and immediately began to cry. Every adult in the room instantly started reassuring her, and Alex, who was closest to her, reached for her.

"Sofia, Sofia, it's okay," he said. "It was just a loud noise. It's okay." All of the attention was too much at once for Sofia, and she just squirmed away from Alex and cried harder, big crocodile tears that washed away whatever chocolate remained on her face. Callie started making her way toward the baby.

"'Fia!" Zola reached Sofia first. "'Fia, no cry." She put her arms around Sofia and hugged her. "No cry," she repeated, and kissed Sofia on the cheek. Sofia whimpered but stopped crying. "Love you!" Zola said, and Sofia smiled and grabbed Zola's ear. "All better!" Zola announced to the room.

"Okay, that was so cute I could throw up," Cristina remarked.

"Good job, baby," Meredith praised as Zola trotted over to her.

"Wanna help," Zola stated proudly.

"Okay," Alex said, standing up. "My shift starts in twenty minutes. I'm gonna take off." He squatted down in front of Sofia. "Hey, Sofia. Thanks for inviting me to your party. You have a happy birthday, okay? And take care of that dog for me." He made a fist and held it out, inviting Sofia to pound it. Sofia, taking the invitation for what it was, grabbed Alex's knuckle and drew it into her mouth. "Hey, that's my scalpel hand. Give it back." Sofia looked up at Alex and laughed.

"Bye, Alex," Arizona said as Alex headed for the door. "Thanks for coming."

Alex nodded and, after thinking about it for a second, hugged Arizona. "You okay? You need anything?"

Surprised at the gesture, Arizona stammered, "Uh…no, I'm fine, Alex. Thank you."

He cleared his throat and straightened up. Turning around, he saw five pairs of eyes staring at him incredulously. Cristina snickered and covered it with a cough. Callie smiled widely. "Well, I'll see you around, then," he said, and left.

"I'm going to go too," Cristina said after an awkward silence. Getting up off the couch, she bent down and hefted Sofia into her arms. "You're getting big," she commented. "That's what happens when you have birthdays. You grow up and get bigger." Sofia grabbed Cristina's hair with both hands, looked her right in the eyes, smacked her lips, and started babbling in her baby language. "No, seriously, it's true," Cristina continued. "Last year you fit in the palm of my hand, and now look at you." She looked Sofia over, taking her own advice. Sometimes it was hard to believe that this was the baby who almost didn't make it. "You're so big. And gorgeous. And…pink." Cristina wrinkled her nose. "But I guess that's okay. As long as you don't start wearing roller-skate shoes. We have to draw the line somewhere. Your godmother's putting her foot down." Sofia smiled. "Anyway, happy birthday. Next year you'll be even bigger, and the year after that you'll be even bigger. I know it sounds weird, but trust me, birthdays are fun. People give you stuff and you get to eat cake until you pass out. And I know it's a ways off, but remember to stop by my house when you turn twenty-one." Quickly, as though if she moved fast enough no one would see, Cristina kissed Sofia's head and immediately pretended nothing had happened. "Uh, here," she said, passing the baby to Callie, who was standing next to her. "This is yours."

"Goodbye, Cristina," Callie laughed. "I will never understand you."

"I guess that's our cue," Meredith said, standing up and extending her hand for Zola to take. "Come on, sweetie. Say goodbye."

"Bye!" Zola called cheerfully, waving the hand that wasn't holding onto Meredith. "Happy birfday, 'Fia!"

* * *

><p>Mark and Lexie stuck around long enough to help clean up, and then they had played with Sofia until she wore herself out and fell asleep. Mark had held her while she slept, gazing adoringly at her. He hadn't said much about it, but today had been hard for him, too. Today was the anniversary of the day he almost lost his best friend and his daughter. He had almost lost Arizona, too, to his pride and her guilt. Holding Sofia in his arms, Mark had felt pangs of sadness as he remembered how tiny and frail she had been and how broken Callie had looked. Those feelings were quickly overshadowed, though, by the love he had for his daughter. The baby in his arms was proof that things had turned out just fine. Once upon a time, Mark had thought that being a good father meant he had to be the best and the biggest. He thought it meant grand gestures, winning his daughter over, and one-upping Callie and Arizona. Now he knew that it meant looking at Sofia and seeing the future: whether it ended up being tee-ball games or ballet recitals, setbacks or advances, boyfriends or girlfriends, he was going to be there for all of it, and he was going to cherish that girl with everything he had in him. It wasn't hard. He'd already started. And Sofia cherished him right back. It was evidenced in the way she smiled and melted into his arms every time he held her.<p>

He and Lexie had gone back across the hall with promises that they'd see Sofia tomorrow. She was going to spend tomorrow night with her father and – stepmother? Aunt? Nobody was quite sure – as she did on Saturday nights when Mark wasn't working. It wasn't a perfect system, but it worked for the time being.

Now, Callie lay on the couch, Arizona sprawled on top of her, both of them fighting to stay awake.

"It's only four and I'm exhausted," Callie groaned. "Does this mean we're old?"

"No," Arizona promised. "No way. I'm never getting old. But if I do, promise you won't trade me in for a younger model."

"By then I'll be too old and senile to remember there's such a thing as younger models," Callie mused. "We'd better be extra nice to Sofia now so she puts us in one of the good nursing homes when we're ancient and decrepit."

"I won't be decrepit when I'm old. I'll still be hot."

"And I'll still be badass."

"I'll still wear my Heelies."

Callie didn't say anything for a minute, and Arizona thought she'd fallen asleep. "Today was good," she finally said.

"Today was good," Arizona agreed. "Thank you."

"What are you thanking me for? You did all the work."

"You're here. You came back to me. Today could've been really different, but you're here. Sofia's here. And I love you both so much."

"Hmm," Callie sighed contentedly. "My girls."

"Nuh-uh," Arizona argued, poking Callie in the ribs. "_You_ are _my_ girls."

"Whatever. I'm too tired to argue."

"You know, I don't think today is just Sofia's birthday."

"Huh?"

"No, really," Arizona insisted. "I think today is kind of a birthday for all of us. We all had a pretty major wake-up call last year. It's kind of like we were reborn. I was reborn. Everything changed, and then it all started making sense. You and me, _we_ were reborn."

"I was," Callie said slowly. "I came out of a dark place and I found you. I was born again last year, for you."

"I love you," Arizona said again, snuggling down into Callie as much as she could. "So you agree? Today is kind of our birthday too?"

"I agree," Callie said. "Unless…"

"Unless what?"

"Are you just saying it's your birthday so you have an excuse to eat another cupcake?"

"Calliope!" Arizona swatted Callie's shoulder. "Did it work?"

"Nope."

The pair lapsed into a comfortable silence, Callie drawing patterns on Arizona's back and Arizona beginning to drift off under the relaxing touch.

"Arizona?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think you could teach me to knit?"

"No way. Mama cooks. Mommy knits."

"It's official. We're old."

"Huh. I guess what Cristina said about birthdays was true." She thought for a moment. "What do you think Sofia wished for?"

"Probably that she'd get a handful of chocolate to smear on her face."

"Well, what do you know? I guess wishes do come true." She leaned in and kissed Callie, slowly and softly. "I know mine did."


	3. The Conversationalist: August 2012

According to my super-fantastic beta, Jess/Hylen, this part is so fluffy and sweet that it made her teeth hurt, so proceed with caution.

* * *

><p>Part 3<br>_August 2012_

"Come on, honey," Arizona coaxed, squatting to eye level with Sofia in her high chair. "Can you say 'Mommy' for me?" She held the spoon of yogurt a couple inches from Sofia's face, trying to bribe the baby with her breakfast.

"Buhhh!" Sofia cried, flailing forward and reaching for the spoon.

"Mom-my," Arizona repeated, exaggerating the movements of her mouth. She then drew the spoon toward Sofia's mouth, making spaceship noises. They never failed to make Sofia laugh. Arizona had discovered that a few months ago and had yet to tell Callie or make the noises while she was around. The spaceship was Arizona's gig.

"Buh?" Sofia asked, looking up at Arizona with those huge, wide eyes and making a grabbing motion with her hand.

"Sorry, hungry girl," Arizona said. "That's all we've got." She showed Sofia the empty yogurt container as proof.

"Hum."

"Hey, don't blame me. You're the one who's growing like a magic beanstalk."

"Veh? Fum. Bah."

"Exactly. I'm so glad we had this little talk." And really, she was. Regardless of the fact that Sofia was seventeen months old and had yet to say a single actual word, Arizona couldn't help but feel that Sofia was communicating with her. Maybe it was the way she looked right into Arizona's eyes when she said whatever it was she was saying, or maybe it was the way she grabbed onto Arizona's hand and babbled. Whatever it was, there was no doubt in Arizona's mind that Sofia's baby syllables made perfect sense to her, and when she said then, she knew what she was talking about. Arizona found it nothing short of adorable. It was like listening to a chirping bird describing, in its own language, all of the beautiful trees and flowers it was seeing.

Still, Arizona couldn't deny that there was a decent-sized part of her that wanted to hear her daughter say 'Mommy.' And if she said it before she said 'Daddy' or 'Mama'? Well, who would she be to complain?

"All right, little lady. Let's get cleaned up and then we're going for a walk. That's right, sweetie, you're going for a walk. With…" she paused to let Sofia fill in the blank. She gazed up at Arizona but didn't say anything. "With Mommy. Mommy. Mom-my." Sofia burped. "Well, maybe later."

* * *

><p>Arizona pushed the stroller through the park as Sofia chattered animatedly, pointing at clouds, birds, and squirrels. In the distance, she saw Mark on his cell phone walking toward them. As he got closer, he spotted Arizona and Sofia. His eyes lit up and he ended his call, jogging the rest of the way toward them.<p>

"Look, sweetheart!" Arizona cooed, leaning over the stroller to see Sofia's face. "There's Daddy!" Sofia giggled and clapped her hands. "Want to tell Daddy who you're with?"

"Mmm…buh!" Sofia said, cracking a huge smile.

"Hey, beautiful!" Mark lifted Sofia out of the stroller and bounced her, much to Sofia's delight. "How's my girl?"

"I'm trying to get her to start talking," Arizona told him over Sofia's laughter. "Don't tell Callie, but I really think it'll be any day now."

"What aren't we telling Callie?" Cristina asked. She and Meredith, obviously on their lunch break, strolled over to Arizona, Mark, and Sofia.

"If Callie thinks Sofia should be doing something, she'll worry and refuse to let it go until it happens," Mark explained.

Arizona nodded. "It's better not to encourage her."

"So what exactly aren't we encouraging?" Meredith asked.

"We think Sofia is going to start talking soon."

"Sofia," Cristina said, trying to meet the baby's gaze as she bounced in Mark's arms. "Can you say 'Cristina'? Cri-sti-na." Sofia regarded Cristina, grabbed her hair with one hand, and giggled. "No? How about 'arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy'?"

"Hmmm." Sofia turned away from Cristina to look at her father.

Cristina shrugged. "Probably for the best. Once you get her talking you'll never shut her up."

"What was Zola's first word, Meredith?" Arizona asked.

"'Yes,'" Meredith replied after thinking for a moment. "Derek asked her if she was hungry and she said 'yes.' Of course, three days later she learned 'no,' and she didn't say 'yes' again for a month."

"See?" Cristina said. "That's what I mean."

"Sofia, you'll never say no to me, will you?" Arizona cooed. "You'll always agree with everything I say."

Meredith snorted good-naturedly. "Good luck with that."

Mark lifted Sofia so she was sitting on his shoulders.

"Mark, be careful!" Arizona admonished.

"I've got her," Mark assured her. "Right, Sofia? I've got you. I've always got you." Sofia shrieked with laughter, eyes alight. Arizona stood close, one hand resting lightly on Sofia's back, but she trusted Mark to keep a strong grip. She knew he would always protect their daughter with everything he had. "Daddy's got you. Daddy's never letting go. Daddy loves you." He drew out the last 'Daddy' for Sofia's benefit, hoping she'd catch on and repeat the word.

"So does Mommy," Arizona added. "Mommy _adores_ you. Mom-my."

"I didn't realize we were walking into a mushy love-fest," Cristina said, grimacing. "I feel queasy. We should go."

"I think it's sweet," Meredith countered. "Look how much love she has in her life. Between Arizona, Mark, and Callie, she'll be the happiest kid in the world."

Cristina pouted. "You're no fun anymore."

* * *

><p>"Sofia, come on. Please?" Callie wrestled a shirt over Sofia's head as the baby sat on her changing table the next morning. "You can do it. Just say 'Mama.' That's me. You know me. Mama. Ma-ma."<p>

"B-b-b-b."

"Sweetie, please? If you say it I'll…I'll give you chocolate. Yummy, yummy chocolate. From Mama. Ma-ma."

"Huhhh buh!"

Callie sighed and bit her lip, trying not to cry out in frustration. She repeated what Arizona kept telling her: _she'll talk when she's ready. She'll talk when she's ready_. Sofia had already defied so many odds in her short life. She was a happy, healthy seventeen-month-old. Her heart was in excellent condition. She processed all kinds of stimuli and was always aware of what was going on around her. She was loving and sweet, and in Callie's _completely_ unbiased opinion, she was really, really cute. It was just this talking – well, and walking – thing. The more time went by without a word from Sofia, the more Callie worried that her daughter would never be like other children. What if she never spoke at all? What if she was never able to function in the world? Callie couldn't completely understand how Arizona and Mark could be so carefree about these kinds of things.

Of course Callie loved Sofia unconditionally. She'd love her if she lived the rest of her days mute and immobile. And because she loved her so much, Callie wanted the world for her daughter. She wished, so hard it sometimes made her heart ache, that Sofia would always be able to do and have everything she could ever want. She didn't want anything to hold her back. She knew Arizona and Mark wanted the same thing. They just both happened to possess the gift of patience, while Callie, with her fiery temper and let's-go-full-steam-ahead attitude, did not.

It was anybody's guess as to whose temperament Sofia would inherit.

Callie mustered a smile and finished putting on Sofia's sandals. (Not that she really needed them, since she wasn't walking, but they were pale blue jellies with a daisy pattern on them, and Arizona had been powerless against them.) "All right, baby. Ready to go see Mommy?" It was just about time for Callie and Arizona to play Baby Switch, wherein Callie dropped Sofia off with Arizona before starting her shift just as Arizona was finishing hers. They didn't do it every day, and their shifts didn't always line up that way, but Callie treasured any opportunity she could find to see Arizona. Plus, Sofia seemed to enjoy being amid all the activity and excitement of the hospital.

Sofia smiled and clapped her hands, which Callie took as a yes. As worried as she might be, it was hard to be unhappy in the presence of that smile. Arizona liked to tell Callie that it was the very same smile that had made her weak in the knees when the two of them had first met. Sofia lunged forward with her whole body and threw herself onto Callie, landing on her chest and hugging her to the best of her ability. "Buh-buh-buh!"

Callie laughed, which of course encouraged Sofia to do the same. "I love you too, baby!" She kissed Sofia's head, now covered in loose, black curls. "Mama's little boob girl. Guess that runs in the family, huh?"

* * *

><p>"Hey!" Arizona chirped when she saw her wife and daughter approaching her at the nurses' station. Sofia rested comfortably on Callie's hip. "How are my favorite girls?"<p>

"Ba ba ba ba!" Sofia called out.

"She still won't talk, Arizona," Callie whined, her worry back in full force. "How hard is it to say 'Mama'? Why can't she say it? What if there's something wrong with her? We were all worried about her heart, but what if she has brain damage? Why won't she talk?"

"Callie." Arizona laid a hand on Callie's shoulder. "She will talk. If not today, maybe tomorrow. But you need to stop worrying. Babies can tell when their parents are worried. Sofia will talk when she wants to. There's nothing wrong with her, honey. Okay?"

"I know," Callie sighed. "I _know_. It's just –"

At that moment, Sofia caught sight of Miranda Bailey and Mark walking toward her and her mothers, engrossed in conversation. Squealing happily, she extended her arms. She kicked her feet when they got close, narrowly avoiding kicking Callie in the ribs.

"Bailey!"

Callie stopped talking.

Mark halted his conversation with Bailey as his eyes widened.

Arizona blinked. "Did-did she just –"

Bailey cracked up laughing.

Sofia giggled, reaching her hands out and grabbing Miranda's face. "Bailey!" she said again. Wordlessly, Callie handed her over.

"You have got to be kidding me," Mark said, but he was smiling. "She has three parents and her first word is '_Bailey_'?"

Bailey cuddled Sofia and nodded, a satisfied smirk firmly in place on her face. "My girl's got her priorities in order."

Callie couldn't seem to regain control of her mouth as she gaped in shock. "She just – how did – what – she really just –"

"She talked, Calliope," Arizona said reverently, tears springing to her eyes. "We heard our baby's voice. And it was beautiful."

"She talked," Callie repeated, pulling Arizona into a hug.

"See?" Arizona squeaked, trying not to cry. "I told you!"

"Good job, Sof." Mark grinned, grabbing Sofia's hand. His chest filled with pride.

"Mama is so proud of you, baby," Callie finally said, her own voice thick.

"Mommy too," Arizona added. "Bailey, stop hogging my baby."

Miranda laughed again and handed Sofia to her mommy.

"Watch out, Sofia," Arizona said conspiratorially. "I think I just saw the cuddle monster coming!" She kissed Sofia all over her face and tickled her with her free hand.

Sofia shrieked and laughed and craned her neck to look at Miranda. "Bailey!"

"Sorry, kid, you're on your own," Bailey laughed. "Bailey doesn't tangle with the cuddle monster."


	4. Ain't No Mountain High Enough: Dec 2012

A/N: So, it was a little weird writing Christmas in June (not to mention it was a little weird writing Christmas in general, seeing how I'm Jewish), but whatever. Thank you all so much for your comments on the previous chapters! You are all so sweet. And I'm glad you're enjoying reading this as much as I'm enjoying writing it! This was beta'd in record time by the incredible Jess/Hylen. Thank you for being awesome, bestie!

* * *

><p>"Mommy!"<p>

Squinting, Callie groaned and rolled halfway over in bed. On a scale of one to awake and functioning, she was currently managing a two. Two and a half, maybe, if she really focused, which in itself seemed to require more energy than she was willing to provide. She'd fallen into bed around two AM after a grueling shift, and if it was anywhere before eleven AM now, Callie didn't want to hear about being awake. Unfortunately, twenty-one-month-old Sofia had either missed that memo or she'd decided that breakfast was far more important.

"Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!"

Reluctantly extricating one arm from under the covers, Callie slapped blindly in the vague direction of Arizona's shoulder. "Arizona, wake up. Up. Get up."

Arizona jolted awake, blinking in confusion at the sudden disappearance of the dream she'd been having. "Hmm? What?"

"Wake up," Callie repeated, voice thick with sleep. "She's asking for you."

"Why can't you get her? You're already awake."

"Nope. It's nine. I'm still asleep. And she's asking for _you_." To demonstrate her point, Callie rolled over and closed her eyes.

"_Mommy!_"

Despite her unceremonious shove into the waking world and the chill December morning air surrounding her, Arizona smiled. She hadn't gotten tired yet of hearing "Mommy." Sofia had acquired a whole slew of words, seemingly overnight, to which "Bailey" had apparently been her gateway. Four months after the fact, Arizona still grinned at the memory of Sofia's second word.

* * *

><p><em>Arizona's in the shower while Callie makes coffee. Sofia plays on the living room floor with blocks, stacking them and laughing when they topple over. It's a lazy morning, a rare occasion on which both Arizona and Callie have the day off. They don't get days together very often, maybe once every two or three weeks. They get a decent number of nights together, which is great unless someone gets paged. But they love days like these, when they get to sleep late, cuddle, and be the family they daydream of being. <em>

_Sofia's latest block tower sways and tumbles. They fall on her, and a wayward block strikes her forehead. Granted, they're plastic blocks and they don't hurt, but it startles Sofia nonetheless – how dare her own creation turn around and attack her! – and she whimpers before erupting into full-fledged cries._

_Callie comes running to her baby's rescue. "What happened, baby?" she coos. She sees the pile of blocks and puts two and two together. "Did those mean blocks fall on you? That wasn't very nice."_

"_Mommy!" Sofia wails. _

"_Yep, Mama's here." Callie doesn't really register what Sofia's saying, only that it's a word she didn't say yesterday and that she seems to want her mother, and Callie scoops her up. Sofia doesn't stop crying, though, despite Callie's soothing voice and soft bouncing._

"_Mommy!" she cries again, twisting and squirming in Callie's arms. At that moment, Arizona emerges from the bedroom, clad in sweatpants and a tank, hair still wet from her shower. "Mommy! Mommy!" She reaches for Arizona, who breaks into a huge super-magic smile at the sound of her baby girl addressing her for the first time. _

_Bewildered, Callie says, "She was crying for you." It hadn't occurred to her that Sofia had made the distinction between the two different names for her mothers. "Her blocks fell on her, she got upset, and she wanted you." Callie isn't unhappy or jealous at her daughter's rejection; actually, she thinks it's adorable – both that she knows who is Mommy and who is Mama, and that she clearly loves Arizona and wants her when she's upset. _

_Aware that Sofia is about to jump out of her arms to get to Arizona, Callie hands the baby over, smiling and pecking her wife on the lips as she does so._

"_Hi, sweet pea," Arizona coos as Sofia's cries quiet to whimpers. "Why are you crying? Did you get a boo-boo from the blocks? Well, here. Mommy will make it all better." She places a big kiss on Sofia's forehead where she imagines the block would have hit her. "No more tears, baby girl. Mommy's got you." She nuzzles her cheek against the top of Sofia's head as Sofia wraps her arms around Arizona's neck and rests her head on her shoulder. She's stopped whimpering now, and she sniffles and manages a little smile. _

_Callie watches and, despite her attempts to hold onto the last vestiges of her badassery, feels herself tear up at the sheer sweetness of the scene in front of her._

She'd said "Mama" later that day. "Daddy" came the next day; somewhat mangled versions of "Lexie" and "Cristina" the day after that. It had taken a little while, but Sofia had eventually mastered the names of the people in her life (and who could blame her? She knew a _lot_ of people) and had subsequently moved on to other words. These days, Sofia chattered almost constantly. She had yet to actually string words into sentences, but she was known to throw in the occasional two-word phrase. Clearly, the fact that she'd been late to start talking hadn't slowed her down too much.

* * *

><p>"Mommy!" Arizona was broken out of her reverie by Sofia's call – or was it Callie nudging her with her foot under the covers as she pulled her pillow over her head?<p>

"Good morning, sweet pea!" Arizona chirped, bouncing into Sofia's room, where Sofia stood bracing herself on the bars of her crib.

"Mommy!" Sofia's face broke into a huge grin and she bounced on the balls of her feet.

"Well, goodness, you're happy to see me! Did you miss me? Or are you just hungry?"

"No," Sofia replied. As Meredith had warned, "no" was generally Sofia's preferred response to questions.

"No, huh?" Arizona tickled Sofia's belly as she lifted her out of the crib. "You're not hungry? I guess I'll just have to eat your breakfast too, then."

Sofia laughed at being tickled and then, once she had calmed down, nuzzled into Arizona. "Mommy," she murmured into her neck. Arizona's heart swelled, as it did every time Sofia cuddled her. She ran a hand through the baby's downy curls. Sofia picked her head back up and gazed at Arizona, pure adoration shining in her eyes. It was the same look Callie often gave her. Sofia reached forward and placed a hand on Arizona's cheek.

"Sweet baby girl," Arizona said, picking up Sofia's palm and kissing it. "I'm happy to see you, too. Did you have a good sleep?"

"No." Arizona rolled her eyes and blew a raspberry on Sofia's face. "Way to kill the moment."

As if suddenly remembering why she'd called out for Mommy in the first place, Sofia squirmed in Arizona's arms. "Hungry!" she said. Arizona was fairly certain that if she put Sofia down, she'd crawl to the kitchen as fast as she could.

"Okay, whoa, cowgirl. First things first. Let's get some real clothes on, shall we? And if I know you, and I think I do, I'm guessing you're going to want out of that diaper you've got on before we do anything else."

"Hungry," Sofia whined.

"I know, I know. We'll be as fast as we can, and then it'll be time to eat. What should we have for breakfast?"

"No."

Arizona snorted. "Waffles it is."

* * *

><p>It was eleven-thirty before Callie finally dragged herself out of bed.<p>

"Hey, sunshine," Arizona said as Callie stumbled past her on the living room floor, where she sat playing with Sofia and some stuffed animals.

"Hmm. Morning. Coffee?"

"In the pot."

"Thanks."

"Mama!" Sofia called. She pulled herself up with help from the coffee table. She'd been doing that a lot lately, and sometimes she let go of whatever piece of furniture she'd used for leverage and stood on her own until she got tired of it and plopped back down.

"Hey there, Sof," Callie replied, sauntering into the living room with a mug of coffee in her hand. "Are you having fun with Mommy?"

"No."

"Mm. Didn't think so." She sipped her coffee. Her eyes suddenly widened in panic. "Oh my god. What day is it?"

"Uh…Wednesday?"

"The date. What's the date? Is it the twenty-second?" Arizona thought for a moment and nodded. "The twenty-second, as in our Christmas Eve-eve party is tomorrow and we haven't cleaned or decorated or figured out who's picking your parents up from the airport? We don't even have a tree!"

"Calliope, whoa." Arizona stood up and grabbed Callie's elbows. "Breathe. I can get this place cleaned in two hours. I've done it in less time." She smirked. "The box of decorations is in the closet. My parents are taking a cab from the airport because I'm working up until an hour before the party starts tomorrow and you're going to be cooking. And we picked out a tree, remember? It's sitting out in the woods behind Meredith and Derek's house waiting for us to come and get it."

Callie exhaled slowly. "Okay. Sorry. It's just really soon and we're always so busy and I want Christmas to be special for Sofia." It wasn't Sofia's first Christmas, but she'd only been nine months old last Christmas and didn't know anything special was going on. Still reeling from the nine eventful months of Sofia's life, Callie and Arizona had opted not to have a party, inviting Mark and Lexie over for a quiet dinner instead. This year would be different. There was going to be a real Christmas party, complete with decorations, grandparents, a Secret Santa gift exchange, and way too much food.

"I know."

"And –" Callie swallowed around the sudden lump in her throat. "And my parents aren't coming."

"Oh, honey. I know." Close to two years after her wedding to Arizona, Callie's mother still hadn't come around. She hadn't heard from her at all. Her father had been great, calling whenever he could, sending Sofia presents, and even coming to visit a couple times. But he just wasn't able to swing Christmas in Seattle. Callie hadn't seen her parents last Christmas either, but that had been different. She'd practically just gotten married. Sofia was still an infant. And Arizona's parents weren't there to remind her of what she was missing.

"I mean, I don't really want to see my mom, but –"

"I know," Arizona repeated softly, pulling Callie into a hug. "I know." It broke Arizona's heart to know that Callie and her mother hadn't spoken in nearly two years. Callie put on a tough front, claiming she didn't want to see her mother anyway, but Arizona knew that beneath the mask was a little girl who still just craved her mother's love. And when Lucia was the reason Callie couldn't see her parents at Christmas? It made Arizona hurt almost as much as her partner. "I'm so sorry, Calliope. But I promise tomorrow will be perfect, okay? I'll take Sofia over to Derek and Meredith's this afternoon when you go to work and we'll get the tree, and then we'll get started on some of the decorating. Does that sound good?"

"Yeah," Callie breathed. "That's perfect. Thank you." Even though she'd worked a long shift yesterday, Callie had to work again this afternoon. December meant ice, ice meant broken bones, and broken bones meant Callie got pulled in several directions at the same time. Arizona had worked yesterday morning through dinnertime, leaving Sofia with Mark, and she'd be working from six tomorrow morning until six in the evening. So went the holiday season.

"What do you think, Sofia?" Arizona asked. "Want to go with Mommy to get our Christmas tree?"

"No."

"I don't think she even knows what she's saying no to half the time," Callie remarked.

"Well," Arizona said thoughtfully, "maybe she'll get it out of her system now before she's a teenager."

"Oh, god, no," Callie moaned. "Don't say that. She's our baby. She's going to be our baby forever and ever. Right, Sofia? You're not going to be a cranky teenager, are you?"

"No."

"Whew!" Arizona said, eyes twinkling. "That's a relief!"

* * *

><p>"Okay," Arizona said to Sofia, although it was really more for her own benefit. "We've got our coats; we've got our hats and mittens. We've got your diaper bag, my purse, our rope for tying the tree to the car, one mommy, and one baby. I think we're good to go." Juggling the diaper bag, her purse, and the rope on one arm, Arizona lifted Sofia onto her hip with the other. "Ready to go get our Christmas tree?"<p>

Sofia giggled. "No."

Arizona's hand was on the doorknob when her pager began to blare from inside her purse. "No!" Arizona cried. "No, no, no. No, no…" She continued muttering to herself as she fished through the purse. She finally secured the pager and pulled it out. _911_. "Crap!"

"Uh-oh," Sofia said, aware that some kind of wrench had been thrown into the works and Mommy was upset.

Arizona sighed loudly. "Mama's going to kill me." She threw open the apartment door and fumbled her way across the hall. Finding it easier to knock with her elbow, she pounded on the door. "Please be home, please be home…"

"Arizona, hey. Hi, Sofia!" Lexie appeared in the doorway.

"Oh, thank god," Arizona breathed. "Is Mark here?"

"No, he's working," Lexie replied. "Why, what's up?"

"I just got paged. 911 I have to go. Could you –"

"I'll watch her," Lexie agreed easily. Sofia had grown on her, slowly but surely. Watching Mark with her, it hadn't been hard to find herself wanting to be part of this little family. Now that Sofia was almost two, Lexie was fully on board the taking-an-active-role-with-Mark's-kid train. She wouldn't go so far as to say she was a mother, not that Sofia needed another one anyway, but she was a permanent fixture in Mark's and Sofia's lives now, and she was perfectly happy with the arrangement.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," Arizona exhaled, passing Sofia and the diaper bag to Lexie. "I don't know how long I'll be – I'm hoping not too long, but you never know. Sofia, Mommy will be back as soon as she can. Be good for Lexie, okay? I love you." She leaned down to kiss Sofia's cheek.

"Mommy," Sofia whimpered, reaching her arms out for Arizona.

"Hey, hey, Sofia, it's okay!" Lexie tried to distract Sofia as Arizona ran into the elevator. "Mommy will be back soon, and we'll have fun. Look, she left us…" Lexie trailed off, realizing that Arizona had inadvertently handed her several lengths of rope. "Um, she left us rope for some reason. Let's, uh, let's check out the toys inside."

"Mommy," Sofia whined, gazing down the now-empty hallway. Still, she didn't put up too much of a fuss as Lexie toted her into her apartment. Once she was inside, she perked up as she recognized her surroundings. "Daddy?" Her eyes darted around, searching for Mark. "Daddy?"

"Nope, sorry," Lexie said as she set the diaper bag on the counter and Sofia on the couch. "Just me. And…" she paused dramatically as she reached into the toy box next to the couch. "And Blue Bear!" Lexie's hand emerged, holding Sofia's favorite blue teddy bear.

"Boo Bear!" Sofia smiled and clapped her hands. "'Exie, Boo Bear!"

Lexie smiled, satisfied with herself. She was getting the hang of this.

* * *

><p>The sun was setting when Arizona finally trudged off the elevator and zombie-walked to Mark and Lexie's apartment. Two emergency surgeries later, she hadn't cleaned or even managed to drag the Christmas decorations out of the closet. The tree was still in the woods behind Derek and Meredith's house. Callie was going to have a stroke.<p>

"Mommy!" Sofia called happily when Mark, who had gotten home an hour or so ago, opened the door to reveal a haggard-looking Arizona. Lexie smiled up from the book she'd been reading to Sofia.

"Hi, Sofia," Arizona said, smiling weakly and stepping inside. "Hey, Mark. Hey, Lexie."

"You look beat," Mark said sympathetically. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She really was beat, though, even though she hadn't even worked a full shift.

"Want us to keep her for a little while?"

Arizona entertained the idea. It was tempting, she had to admit, but she wanted Sofia around when she hung Christmas stockings and decorated the tree. "Would you mind keeping her just while I vacuum and give the apartment a quick scrub?" That seemed like a fair compromise. Besides, having a toddler around, even though she wasn't exactly toddling yet, while she was trying to clean didn't exactly conjure an image of efficiency in Arizona's mind.

"Sure, no problem."

"Thanks," Arizona said. "Sofia, Mommy will be back soon, and then we'll go get our tree. Hopefully before Mama comes home and kills me." She waved goodbye and turned to leave.

"Bye-bye," Sofia called, waving clumsily back. Then she turned back to Lexie, leaned into her side, and pointed at the book in Lexie's lap. "More."

Lexie laughed softly. "You're the boss."

* * *

><p>Arizona paused in her frantic scrubbing of the shower when she heard knocking on the door. "You've got to be kidding me," She said out loud. "I do not have time for this. I do not have –" She threw the door open to reveal Derek Shepherd, propping a Christmas tree up against the hallway wall. "Derek. Hi. Sorry." She gestured to her harried appearance – rubber gloves still on her hands, hair falling out of its ponytail, and a look in her eyes that she imagined came off as slightly insane.<p>

"Hey," Derek replied. "You hadn't been by and I know your party's tomorrow. I figured I'd just bring the tree over. I'm glad you're home, otherwise I would've left it out here and you never know where there might be tree thieves."

Arizona breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Derek Shepherd, I could kiss you." He raised his eyebrows, clearly amused. "Don't worry, I'm not going to." Together, the two of them carried the tree inside and stood it up in the spot Arizona and Callie had reserved for it. "Thank you so, so much," Arizona said. "You have no idea how much I appreciate this."

"No problem," Derek said, showing himself to the door. "We'll see you tomorrow. Seven o'clock, right?"

"Any earlier and Callie will make you help in the kitchen."

Once he was gone, Arizona finished cleaning the bathroom with renewed vigor. After hefting the big box of Christmas decorations out of the closet, she dashed across the hall, collected Sofia, the diaper bag, and the rope she hadn't realized she'd been missing, and ran back to her own apartment.

"Okay!" Arizona said, clapping her hands after she'd set Sofia on the floor next to the tree. "Ready to get started?"

Sofia peered into the box of decorations. "No."

Callie walked through the door just as Arizona picked a piece of tinsel out of the box. "Hey," she called, dropping her keys on the counter. Then she looked around the apartment and realized it looked almost exactly the same as it had when she'd left. "You didn't decorate."

"I got paged," Arizona explained.

Callie would normally have been sympathetic, but her Christmas-induced stress wasn't currently allowing for any extra sympathy. "Did you clean?"

"Kind of."

"Arizona!"

"Look, Callie, I tried, okay? I got paged. It happens. You know that."

"Arizona, the party's tomorrow! You're working all day and I have to cook for sixteen people!"

"Callie –"

"The apartment's not cleaned or decorated!"

"We can finish tonight –"

"I just wanted to come home to a clean, decorated apartment and relax and now I can't!"

"I know, Callie, but –"

"It's nearly Christmas and my parents aren't coming and I'm probably going to get called in tomorrow because people keep breaking their bones and I want this to be special for Sofia and you didn't even –"

"Mama."

Callie stopped ranting at the sound of Sofia's voice and a tiny body colliding with her leg. "Hi, baby," she sighed resignedly. She opened her mouth to keep talking to – well, at – Arizona, but then she blinked and did a double-take. Sofia was standing against her leg. As in, not on her hands and knees. "Wait a minute. You were over there." Sofia teetered slightly, grabbed Callie's leg for support, and beamed up at her. Callie looked at Arizona, who hadn't moved since Callie had walked in.

Arizona looked down at where Sofia had just been and then at Callie. "She was right here. And now she's over there." Her eyes widened. "Oh my god, Calliope, she just –"

"She just walked over here!" A loud laugh bubbled out of Callie's chest.

"Mama." Callie looked down at Sofia, who stood with one hand on Callie's leg and one arm outstretched. In that hand was an ornament she'd grabbed out of the box.

"For me?" Callie asked breathlessly.

Sofia nodded. "Yeah. Mama."

"Thank you." Callie had to concentrate extra hard on not crying as she took the proffered ornament.

"She walked," Arizona whispered. "And we weren't even paying attention." She hadn't realized how eagerly she'd been awaiting this moment until it had happened. She and Callie were so accustomed to carrying Sofia around that it had hardly occurred to them that at twenty-one months she really should have been making progress on walking.

Callie scooped Sofia into her arms. "Look at you, you big girl!" she exclaimed. "Talking and walking. You're practically a grown-up." She paused and remembered her earlier qualms about Sofia's aging. "A baby grown-up."

"No," Sofia whined. "Down." Callie reluctantly set Sofia down. As soon as her feet touched the floor, Sofia turned and started heading for Arizona. "Mommy!"

"Come here, Sofia!" Arizona encouraged.

"Arizona," Callie said softly as she watched Sofia trot carefully across the floor. "I'm sorry I went all crazy. I'm just…it's not your fault."

Arizona nodded and smiled at Callie without taking her eyes off Sofia. "I know. I'm stressed too. It's okay."

"I shouldn't have yelled," Callie insisted. "I'm sorry."

Sofia was about two-thirds of the way to Arizona when she stumbled and fell down. "Uh-oh." Her face twisted, and Callie braced herself to go to Sofia in case she started crying. Both she and Arizona watched with bated breath.

"Come on, come on," Arizona whispered, though she doubted Sofia could hear her. "You can do it." To both hers and Callie's surprise, Sofia didn't even whimper. Slowly, she picked herself up off the floor, not holding onto anything, and crossed the remaining distance between herself and her mommy.

"Mommy!" Sofia said happily, her last step becoming a hop into Arizona's waiting arms.

"Oh, hello, sweet pea," Arizona said, hugging Sofia tightly and covering her face with kisses.

"Oh my god!" Callie nearly shrieked. "Oh my god, she's really – oh my god! I'm getting the video camera. We've gotta send this to my dad!" She ran past Arizona on her way to the closet where they kept the camcorder and then doubled back. "I'm sorry," she repeated one more time before leaning down to kiss Arizona. "You're great. I love you."

"I love you, Calliope," Arizona said tenderly, brushing her knuckles over Callie's face. "We're going to have an awesome Christmas, I promise. Now go get the video camera before Sofia gets distracted."

* * *

><p><em>"Okay, now turn around and walk to Mama again." Sofia giggles and half-walks, half-runs to Callie, who rewards her with a kiss on the cheek. "Good job! Can you turn and look at Mommy?<em>" _Arizona's holding the video camera. Callie's already had her turn; she recorded Arizona lifting Sofia up and letting her place ornaments on the tree. "Look, there's Mommy!" Callie exclaims. "Wave to Mommy! Say, '_¡Te amo, Abuelo! ¡Feliz Navidad!_'"_

"'_Buelo?" Sofia looks around for her grandfather._

"_Not here, baby. Tell Mommy what you want to say to him and she'll make sure he hears it." Sofia turns and looks up at Callie, tiny brow furrowed in complete confusion._

_Arizona laughs. "Never mind, honey. Just say…uh, what Mama said." She giggles sheepishly. "Sorry, Carlos. Mommy's learning."_

"Feliz Navidad_," Callie repeats slowly._

"_F'iz…dad," Sofia echoes. Everyone laughs._

"_Good try," Callie allows. "Sofia, is there anything else you want to say? Or do you want to walk again?"_

_Sofia looks directly into the camera, grinning fiercely. She takes two steps toward Arizona. "No."_

Smiling, Carlos pressed the "replay" button on his computer screen. He'd already watched the video four times. One more couldn't hurt.


	5. Pajama Party: April 2014

Spoiler alert: I wrote this part under the pretense that Obama is still President in 2014. This one was fun to write! I hope you enjoy it. Beta'd by the illustrious Jess/Hylen. Many thanks, m'dear!

* * *

><p>"Sofia needs a bed."<p>

"Hmm, Obama's proposing tax cuts. Wait, what?" Callie blinked and looked up from the newspaper she was reading to meet Arizona's eyes. "What are you talking about? She has a bed."

"No, she has a crib." Arizona moved around the kitchen, pouring herself coffee and looking through the fridge for something quick to eat. "A crib is not a bed. And if I have to lift her in and out of that thing one more time, my spine is actually going to shatter."

"Wait, you mean like an actual bed?" Callie's whole attention was on Arizona now, newspaper forgotten. "Like an actual bed without railings or bars? She's just a baby, Arizona."

"Calliope, she's three," Arizona said. "She's not a baby. She's barely even a toddler. She's a…slightly less tiny tiny human."

"But she could fall out!"

"It's two feet to the floor. She fell from higher up on the swings at the playground last week. And I would really like it if she could go to the bathroom on her own instead of waking me up when she has to pee at two o'clock in the morning."

Callie huffed. "She has your tiny bladder, by the way."

"Calliope," Arizona said gently, sitting down beside Callie at the breakfast bar, "I know this is kind of big, and I did just spring it on you. But Sofia isn't a baby anymore. She's a kid. And kids don't sleep in cribs. They sleep in beds."

"I know," Callie said softly. "It's just…so soon. Next you're going to tell me she needs a bike without training wheels or a car."

"One thing at a time," Arizona chuckled. "Her feet aren't even big enough for Heelies yet."

Callie rolled her eyes. They were not going to have the Heelies conversation again. Today. "Where is Sofia, by the way?"

"Well, I told her to start getting dressed, so she's probably on the floor in her underwear playing with her dolls."

By most people's standards, Sofia was like any other three-year-old. She had an endless reserve of energy and the attention span of a hummingbird. She loved ice cream and hated taking baths. She was a huge fan of cuddling and her current favorite movie was _The Aristocats_. But the people who knew her best knew that Sofia was different from most other kids her age, likely a result of having been born so early. She was small for her age and she had some difficulty with her speech and motor skills. She spoke perfectly clearly, but the art of putting sentences together, proper verb tenses and all, was hard for her. While Zola had started drawing somewhat recognizable, albeit messy, stick figures when she was three, Sofia scribbled and sometimes forgot what she was doing with the crayon or how she was supposed to hold it. She had some trouble recognizing her shapes and tried to put triangular blocks in round holes. She made progress every day, and she was generally a happy, well-adjusted, functioning, sweet little girl, but Callie, Arizona, and Mark worried that she would develop learning disabilities later on. Arizona maintained that all children were different and special, and that whatever Sofia did would be perfect for who she was. And they were all so glad she was healthy and had virtually no physical limitations that everything else was usually an auxiliary concern.

Sofia wasn't like most three-year-olds. She had three parents who all unanimously agreed she was better than all the others.

"Hi, Mama!" Sofia ran into the kitchen and flung herself at Callie, whom she hadn't seen since last night. In Sofia's world, that was practically forever.

"Hey, chica! How did you sleep?"

"Good." She braced herself on Callie's legs and tried to climb into her lap – which, with Callie on the barstool, was quite a trek.

"Why don't I give you a hand," she said, lifting Sofia up. She blinked. "What are you wearing?" Upon closer inspection, she noticed Sofia was wearing her underwear, one sock, and the Velcro cloak from last Halloween's princess costume.

Sofia looked at Callie and blinked right back. "Clothes."

Arizona stifled a laugh. "You look beautiful, sweetie."

"Gee, thanks, Arizona, but I'm hardly dressed to impress. Now, Sofia on the other hand…"

Standing up from her stool, Arizona tugged on a piece of Callie's hair. "Your mama's a goof," she said, leaning down to kiss Sofia's forehead. "I have to go to work. Make sure she stays in line."

"No, Mommy!" Sofia cried, reaching for Arizona. "I want you stay!"

"I'm sorry, sweet pea. I have to go and take care of all the kids at the hospital so they can get better and run around in princess costumes like you."

"No boy princesses," Sofia said.

"No, you're right," Arizona amended. "Most of the boys probably won't be princesses." She winked at Callie, who just smirked. "How do you think the boys would dress up?"

Sofia thought about that for a moment, adopting an adorably serious expression as she did so. Finally, she responded with, "Bugs!"

Callie buried her face in Sofia's soft, curly hair to keep from laughing too loudly. Arizona giggled and said, "You think about it." She kissed Callie's temple. "I'll see you tonight, Calliope. Will you be okay doing…that thing we talked about?"

"What choice do I have?"

Arizona smiled. "That's my girl."

Sofia looked up at Arizona, pouting. "I miss you, Mommy."

Willing her heart not to break, Arizona ran a hand through Sofia's hair. "I'll miss you too, sweet pea," she said softly. "But you and Mama are going to have a great day, okay? You two are going to do something super special today. And you're going to be asleep when I get home tonight, all snuggled up in your…" She trailed off, not wanting to spoil the surprise. "…Blankets, but I'll come in and give you a kiss, and then I'll see you in the morning. How does that sound?"

"Okay," Sofia relented, hugging Arizona around the neck. "Love you, Mommy."

"I love you too, Sofia. And Calliope, I love you too, don't forget. Call me today if you get stuck."

"I think we'll manage." Callie leaned up to kiss Arizona goodbye. "I'm amazing at choosing furniture. I picked almost all of Cristina's."

* * *

><p>It had been a struggle but Callie had finally been able to convince Sofia to take off the princess cloak and put on some real clothes. There might have been a stare-down, which Sofia might have come dangerously close to winning, but Callie had ultimately used the argument that if Sofia wore her princess cloak out shopping, then everyone would know she was a princess, and Callie was under strict orders from the Queen ("You mean Mommy?" Sofia had asked) to keep her identity a secret. Callie wasn't sure whether it was the Queen part or the secret part that had done the trick, but either way, Sofia was now in her "undercover" attire, the cloak was safe at home, and the princess in question currently sat in her car seat, singing along with surprising accuracy to Frankie Valli's "Can't Keep My Eyes Off of You." She was mangling the lyrics, but Callie had no idea where her daughter had gotten her sense of pitch. It must have been recessive.<p>

"Mama?" Sofia asked once the song ended. "Why we go shop?"

"Well," Callie began, trying to figure out the right way to explain to Sofia that the crib she'd been sleeping happily in for three years was about to be dismantled in favor of a platform with no bars or railings, "you know your crib?"

"Yeah. I sleep."

Callie nodded. "That's right. But you're getting a little big for it, don't you think?"

"No."

_I'm with you, kid,_ Callie thought, but she knew Arizona was right. "Okay, well, I bet you'd like to be able to get in and out of it all by yourself, right?"

"No. I like you pick me up."

Callie sighed. This was going to be a hard sell – made even harder by the fact that she was the one doing the selling. "Sofia, honey, you know your book about Princess Eleanor?" Of course she did. It was only her favorite book in the world. Between Callie, Arizona, Mark, and Lexie, they must have read it to her over a hundred times. Each.

"Yeah. She have hair like Mommy!"

"That's right. And when Princess Eleanor goes to sleep at night, what does she sleep in?"

"Pajamas!"

Callie just barely resisted the urge to smack her head against the steering wheel. "Yeah, that's…that's true, Sof. And what does she sleep _on_?"

Sofia thought hard. "Bed!"

_Finally_. "Right. Princess Eleanor sleeps in a bed. So do Mommy and me. And so do Daddy and Lexie. How would you like to sleep in a bed like that?"

"Okay!" _Whew_. It was a hard sell, but Sofia was an easily-influenced customer.

Once they were inside the furniture store, it was even easier. Sofia liked anything as long as she could have pink bedding like Princess Eleanor. Of the pair, Callie was the skeptic: "Are you _sure_ it's sturdy?" "Just how solid _is_ the solid pine?" "Is the mattress flame-resistant?" "Would you put _your_ child to bed in this?" She texted pictures of every option to Arizona, who responded patiently until she'd finally had enough and sent a text saying, "They all look the same. Just pick one! It's a bed, not a house!"

Finally, after much deliberation, they decided on an oak bed that had been painted white. The headboard was rounded and had a flower pattern carved into the wood. Sofia picked out a pink comforter with a big image of Hello Kitty on it. Zola had fallen in love with Hello Kitty recently and therefore, so had Sofia. The two of them actually had a Hello Kitty game, which to Callie's knowledge mainly consisted of the girls fighting over who got to be Hello Kitty and who got stuck with one of the other characters in the Hello Kitty world. Callie thought they were all the same, but she figured if it was anything like playing superheroes with her sister and fighting for Wonder Woman, it was a pretty big deal.

The people at the furniture store had offered to bring the bed to Callie's apartment, take the crib apart, and assemble the bed in its place. Callie had initially declined, but then she recalled a story Arizona had told her while she'd still been in the hospital about how it had taken Arizona, Mark, Owen, Cristina, Teddy (_that_ had been awkward), Alex, and Bailey four hours to figure out how to put the crib together. Three years later, the story of the seven surgeons it took to assemble a crib still struck very real fear in Callie's heart, and she decided that maybe this time she'd go with the professionals.

It turned out to be a good decision, because it was a hard enough job keeping Sofia occupied while the professionals worked. It was smooth sailing for a while. They played Go Fish, a game Sofia didn't fully understand, telling Callie to "fish" whenever it was her turn to say anything. They were sitting at the coffee table coloring when Sofia said she was hungry. Callie was in the kitchen fixing a snack when Sofia decided to wander into her bedroom to see what was going on.

The crib, or what remained of it, lay on the floor, dismantled and flat. The bed was half-constructed. The mattress from the crib was on the floor underneath its wooden house, and the mattress from the bed was propped up against a wall. The Hello Kitty blanket was draped over the chair in the corner.

Callie figured Sofia was still in the living room until she heard the shrieking. Call it a mother's instinct, but she immediately knew what was wrong.

"Sofia," she said as softly as she could above the screaming, "it's okay. They're just putting your bed together so you can sleep in it tonight."

"No!" Sofia wailed. "My crib! They break it!"

"Sofia, no," Callie said, lifting Sofia up and carrying her out of the room. She mouthed an apology to the workers, who worked diligently and pretended nothing was going on. "They didn't break it, honey. They had to…make it smaller so they can fit the bed in your room."

Sofia screamed, squirmed, and kicked. "No, it's mine! They break it, they break it! I want it!"

"Sofia." Sofia abruptly stopped screaming and kicking, recognizing the authoritative, no-nonsense tone in her mama's voice that only made rare appearances. Callie sat Sofia down on the couch and knelt in front of her. "You need to calm down. I know you're upset, but it's not okay to kick me."

"Sorry," Sofia sniffled.

"Thank you." Callie nodded and brushed a piece of hair from Sofia's face, the affectionate gesture showing her that she wasn't mad.

"My crib, Mama," Sofia said, starting to cry again. "It's _mine_. They break it!"

"I know it looks scary and weird. But remember that bed we picked out? The pretty white one like Princess Eleanor's?"

Sofia nodded, adorable pout (which bore an uncanny resemblance to Callie's) still in place.

"They have it in your room right now. They're putting it together now so you can sleep in it tonight. But they have to make your crib, uh, smaller so they can move it, because that's where your bed's going to go. You can't sleep in a bed and a crib at the same time, can you?"

Sofia sighed resignedly. "No."

"Okay. So why don't we eat our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and watch _The Aristocats_, and then when we're done your bed will be all put together with your Hello Kitty blanket on it."

"Okay." Sofia hopped down off the couch to get the movie. Callie smiled to herself. _Crisis averted_. She only wished Arizona had been there to see it.

* * *

><p>"…So the King told Princess Eleanor that she could keep the unicorn as a pet as long as they only used its magic for good, and so she jumped for joy and ran out to the stables to play with her new best friend. They spent the day running and sliding on rainbows and everyone lived –"<p>

"Happy ever after!" Sofia finished.

"Oh, is that how it ends?" Callie joked. "I thought they all turned into frogs and ate flies for the rest of their lives. But you're probably right."

"Mama!" Sofia tried to sound annoyed, but she was smiling. "No frogs. Happy ever after!"

"Yeah, yeah. You think you know everything." She winked and smirked at Sofia as she slid off the bed and put the book back on the bookshelf. "All right, Sof. It's time for sleep. Are you comfy?" She pulled the comforter up around Sofia as she lay down.

"Yeah." Her eyelids were already drooping.

"Look at you in your big-girl bed. You're so old." Callie sighed and pretended to get choked up, which honestly didn't require too much acting. "_Buenas noches, mi cari__ñ__a_. I love you so much. Have sweet dreams." She bent down to kiss Sofia's head.

"Love you, Mama."

Callie smiled and turned to leave, flicking off the light as she went. She left the door open about halfway, just the way Sofia liked it so she could see the light shining in from the hallway. She had a sneaking suspicion that Sofia was asleep before she was out of the room.

* * *

><p>"Mama!" Callie felt the tiny body collide with her back before she was fully awake.<p>

"Oof!" She rolled over and came face-to-face with a wide-eyed Sofia. A quick glance at the clock on her nightstand told Callie that it was just after midnight. Arizona was due back around 2:00. Callie had only gone to bed about an hour ago, but she felt like she'd been asleep for much longer. Between the late hour, the fog in her brain, and the little girl in her bed, Callie had no idea what was going on.

"Mama," Sofia whimpered, burying her face into the crook of Callie's neck. Callie felt the moisture on her skin and realized Sofia was crying.

That sufficiently cleared the rest of the fog. "Sofia, honey, what's wrong?"

Sofia just kept crying. "Mama. Mama!"

"_Estoy aqu__í__, mi cari__ñ__a. __¿__Por qu__é__ est__á__s llorando_?" She sat up in bed and pulled Sofia into her lap. Sofia immediately threw her arms around Callie's neck and burrowed in as closely as she could. "Mama's right here. Tell me why you're crying."

"I scared!" Sofia hiccupped.

"You're scared? Why? Did you have a bad dream?"

Callie felt Sofia shake her head against her chest. "I want crib."

Callie sighed. _I knew it was too soon_. "How come? Don't you like your bed?"

Sofia shook her head again. "Too big. Blanket fall down. I scared, Mama!"

"Oh, baby." Callie hugged Sofia closer to her. If the workers hadn't stored the dismantled crib in the basement of the apartment building, there was no guarantee that Callie wouldn't have attempted to reassemble it herself. "I know it's scary, doing something new like that for the first time, but –"

"I stay with you," Sofia whimpered.

"Sofia, baby –"

"I not baby."

Callie chuckled despite the situation and her tiredness. "You're right. You're not a baby. You're _my_ baby, but you're not _a_ baby. You're a big girl. And big girls sleep in beds."

"I scared!"

"I know. It's okay to be scared. But if you sleep here with me, you won't get used to your bed and then you won't stop being scared. Hello Kitty will get lonely. And besides, if you slept in here, where would Mommy sleep?"

Sofia didn't have an answer to that. "Mama," she whimpered again, eyes welling up. She pressed herself into Callie. Sofia had woken up for a reason she couldn't remember. Instead of seeing the wooden paneling she was used to, she stared into the dark expanse of her room with nothing protecting her from it. The Hello Kitty comforter lay in a heap on the floor with Barky, the stuffed dog Alex had given her for her first birthday. If they could fall out of bed, who was to say Sofia couldn't too? It was just her and the dark, and she was just a tiny little girl. Her only escape was to leap out of the bed – she realized she could do that, which was an advantage over the crib – and run as fast as she could to her mama, where she knew she'd be safe. Mama was warm and secure. In Mama's arms, Sofia knew, the dark and the scary shadows on the walls couldn't touch her. If she couldn't have the comfort of her crib railings shielding her, Mama's arms were even better.

"You need to sleep in your bed," Callie said as firmly as she could at the late hour. "I know you're scared. But I also know you're very sleepy."

"You still love me, Mama?" Sofia murmured.

Callie swallowed past the lump that had mysteriously appeared in her throat. "Oh, Sofia, of course I do. I love you so much. You're my big, brave girl. You always have been. And being scared tonight doesn't change that. You can be scared as much as you want. I'll love you forever and ever."

"Happy ever after?"

"Exactly." A moment of comfortable silence passed. "You need to sleep in your bed," Callie repeated, "but how about I lie down with you for a while? Would that help?"

Sofia nodded. "Yeah."

"Okay. Up we go." Over the years, Callie had perfected the art of standing up while there was still a toddler attached to her. It came in handy tonight; Sofia's tired body dangled around Callie's neck. Callie could practically feel the exhaustion radiating from her (well, maybe some of it was her own), but the stubborn little girl refused to fall asleep just yet. "Oof. You're getting heavy, Sof."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh." They walked into Sofia's room. "Oh, look, a bed. I think I'll put you down on it. That was lucky." Callie set Sofia down on the bed; Sofia relaxed her grip around Callie's neck and let her bend down to pick the blanket up off the floor. Still, she didn't take her eyes off of her. "No wonder you woke up. Your blanket was on the floor. You must've been cold." Callie placed the blanket back over Sofia, tucking her in a second time. "Or was Barky barking and making lots of noise?" She handed Sofia the dog.

"When Mommy come home?" Sofia asked, settling in.

"Not for another couple of hours, baby." Callie climbed into the bed next to Sofia; Sofia immediately snuggled as close to Callie as she could get. "But remember, she said she'd come in and give you a kiss when she came home. In fact, I bet she'll be so excited to see you sleeping in this bed she'll give you two."

Sofia yawned. "Love you, Mama."

"I love you too, Sof. Now scoot over. You're hogging all the Hello Kitty."

"Mama! It's mine!" Sofia giggled sleepily.

"Yeah, yeah. Scoot your little butt."

* * *

><p>Soft lips on her forehead woke Callie an undetermined length of time later. Focusing her vision as best she could in the dark room, she could just make out Arizona standing above her. "Huh?" she mumbled. "I'm awake. I'm…huh?"<p>

Arizona stifled a giggle. "Shh. Don't wake Sofia up," she whispered. "Come to bed."

"I'm in bed," Callie whined.

"Come to _my_ bed."

"Jeez," Callie grumbled, delicately disentangling herself from Sofia, whose head, right arm, and left leg were on top of her. "Everyone's so possessive tonight." She stood up, rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and followed Arizona into their bedroom. "What were you doing, anyway?"

"I came in to kiss Sofia goodnight like I promised. Imagine my surprise when I found out she'd stolen my bedmate." Arizona shrugged out of her clothes and started putting on her pajamas. "What were _you _doing?"

"She got scared. I lay down with her. It seemed to help."

"Can't say I blame her," Arizona said, climbing into bed and patting the space next to her. "Always helps me."

Callie smiled and shook her head, but she obeyed Arizona's request and climbed into bed beside her wife. "Are you proud of me?" she asked, snuggling up to Arizona's side and wrapping her arms around her middle. "We got a bed. The crib is gone. And I didn't even cry."

"Yes, Calliope, I am _very_ proud of you." Arizona twisted her head to give Callie a kiss. "_Both_ of you." Then she smirked. "You're both growing up so fast."

Callie nudged Arizona's foot with her own under the covers. "Oh, shut up."

"For the record, Calliope, there is nothing sweeter than coming home and finding you cuddled up with Sofia like that. It's one of the most precious things I've ever seen."

"That's only because you haven't seen _you_ cuddled up with her."

Arizona flashed a dimpled smile. "Call it even?"

"Yeah, okay." Callie shrugged. "For now."

Rolling over to face Callie, Arizona leaned down and planted a long kiss on Callie's still-open mouth. "How about now?" she asked when she finally pulled away.

Callie made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a groan. "Big-girl beds are the _best_."


	6. Everything All at Once: August 2016

**A/N (please read!):** Okay, here's the deal. I am posting this (ridiculously long - hopefully that makes up for my absence...?) update. I made some decisions in this part that will probably be surprising and unpopular with some people. I've already taken some flack for it over on LiveJournal. If what I've chosen to do with this story puts you off, I absolutely respect your decision not to read further. However, I just ask that people PLEASE be kind with their reviews. Comments like "This sucks!" or "You're wrong!" don't help anybody, and I will remove them at my discretion. Okay? Okay. One other little plot-related thing: for purposes of this story, the end of season 7 Cristina/Owen baby drama didn't happen. Many bajillions of thanks to Jess/Hylen for everything - her beta'ing is just the tip of the iceberg. So much love to you, sweetie.

* * *

><p><em>August 2016<em>

Sofia sat beside Callie on the living room couch, peering cautiously at the little baby her mama bounced in her arms. "Why don't she stop crying?" she asked over the baby's wails.

"Why _won't_ she stop crying," Callie corrected gently. "Because she's a baby and that's what babies do. They can't talk and tell us what they want, so they cry."

Sofia put her hands over her ears. "It's loud. I want her to stop."

"Jazzy Jazz Hands," Callie cooed to the baby, "why are you making so much noise? You're not hungry. You don't need to be changed. Why are you so grumpy?"

"I don't like it," Sofia whined. "It's too loud!"

"Sofia," Callie warned without changing her tone of voice, for fear that it would upset two-month-old Jasmine even more. "She can't help it. She's not doing it on purpose to bug you. If it's bothering you that much, you can go play in your room."

Sofia turned away but didn't get off the couch. She didn't _want_ to play in her room. She wanted to sit on the couch with her mama. But just like always, that baby was in the way.

* * *

><p><em>May 2015<em>

"Do you want another one?" Arizona asked, blue eyes boring into Callie's face. The two of them were enjoying a rare night off, and with Sofia sleeping over with Mark and Lexie, Callie and Arizona were taking advantage of the opportunity to enjoy a date night at their favorite little Italian restaurant.

Callie glanced at her almost-empty wine glass. "Are you trying to get me drunk?"

"I mean another baby, Calliope."

"Another…what?"

"I've been thinking," Arizona continued. "Now that we have Sofia I've been realizing more and more how much I want to have a family. I never wanted kids before, but I love you and I love Sofia and, God help me, I want to be one of those moms who watches her kids chase each other around the backyard and goes to ballet recitals and soccer games and builds tree houses and –"

"Arizona, whoa. Slow down. You…you want another child?"

Arizona shrugged. "I really do."

"And you have for…a while?" Arizona nodded. Callie exhaled heavily. "Wow."

"You…you don't?"

"No, no, I just…I always wanted a family. I mean, a big family. Like, you know, a basketball team or – or the Von Trapps or something. Then I wanted a family with you, and…and that was it. The details, the numbers, they didn't matter anymore. I wanted a family with _you_. And now I have one. I wanted to have a baby and I did."

Arizona wrung her hands. "So you don't want another one," she confirmed.

Callie shook her head. "I'm not saying that. It's just that…Sofia is not what I imagined when I said I wanted a baby. I love her. She's perfect." She rushed to amend her statement when Arizona raised her eyebrows. "But nothing about her has been anything like I expected. Her birth was…well, you were there. I don't need to tell you."

"Yeah." Arizona reached across the table for Callie's hand.

"And," Callie continued, squeezing Arizona's hand reassuringly, "the three months she was in the NICU were the scariest of my life. Sometimes I still look at her and see…that. I mean, how can I not?"

"I know," Arizona said softly. "I do that too sometimes."

"She's just…she's so small. I mean, yeah, she's four, of course she's small, but she's, like…_tiny_. And she's…different. Mostly fine. But different."

Sofia was coming along, but she was still behind – not that she knew any differently. She didn't know the alphabet. She knew some numbers, but she didn't really understand what they corresponded to. (She knew she was four, which was older than three, but none of that really meant much to her.) Her speech had dramatically improved, but she still ran into some difficulties – compounded by the fact that she was also learning some Spanish, albeit slowly and choppily. She was small; people often mistook her for a three-year-old, and she didn't socialize at the four-year-old level. Her behavior tended to lean more to the younger side.

While she didn't know she was different from other kids her age, she did know that all three of her parents worried and fretted over her fairly often. Lexie, the non-parent in the family, was the exception to that rule. Sofia loved the attention, but she also loved that Lexie never asked her how to spell her name or how many sides a stop sign had. Lexie didn't care that Sofia didn't know how to tie her shoes or switch between feet when she played hopscotch.

Likewise, Sofia was willing to overlook the fact that Lexie actually enjoyed eating green beans and brushing her teeth.

"I know all of that," Arizona said, effectively snapping Callie out of her reverie. "I know being Sofia's parent isn't easy, and I know we have it differently than most other parents. But I also know that being her parent is absolutely the most rewarding thing in my life. More than surgery. I adore Sofia, Calliope. And I adore you. I adore our family. So much that I want it to grow." She cracked a smile. "Besides, all the only children I know are weird."

A moment of silence passed between them. Finally, Callie spoke. Her eyes were a little misty. "I can't."

"O-okay." Arizona tried to hide her disappointment behind her wine glance.

"No, Arizona, wait. I mean, I can't – I can't have children. With my heart and my surgeries…it's too dangerous. Bailey told me and Lucy confirmed."

Arizona winced. She closed her eyes, clearly flashing back to the accident. Squeezing Callie's hand, she whispered, "I'm so sorry."

"Arizona –"

"I know, I know. Just…one second. Please let me be sorry."

Callie nodded. "Okay."

"That doesn't mean we can't have a baby," Arizona said once she'd collected herself. "We could adopt. Or…I could have a baby."

Callie's head snapped up. "You'd do that?"

Arizona smiled softly. "I would."

Another moment of silence. "I don't know. It's still just…I don't know. I'm not saying no. I'm just saying…wow."

"It's a lot to think about," Arizona agreed.

"And that's just the big picture," Callie said. "I mean, let's say you got pregnant. It could take a lot of tries, and IVF is expensive. Who would we use as a donor? And where would we even put a baby? We'd have to move. We don't have any more rooms."

Arizona swallowed. "Y-yeah."

"I'm not saying no," Callie said again. "I'm saying…let's think about it for a while."

"Okay," Arizona agreed. "I like thinking."

* * *

><p><em>May 2015 (Two weeks later)<em>

"Okay." Callie caught Arizona by surprise in the kitchen as she washed dishes.

"Calliope, you scared me!" Arizona playfully flicked soapy water at Callie's face. "Okay what?"

"Okay. Let's have a baby."

Arizona dropped the plate she'd been washing back into the sink. "Real-really?"

Callie nodded. "I adore our family." She repeated Arizona's words from two weeks prior. "Making it bigger, with you, would be perfect."

Arizona threw her sudsy hands around Callie's neck and kissed her deeply. "I love you so much," she said. "And I just want you to know that you and Sofia are perfect, and more than enough for me. If you had said no, I wouldn't have felt like I didn't have a family already."

Callie smirked. "Good to know."

"So…yay!" Arizona squealed. "Oh. Oh my god. We have to move. We have to figure out how we're going to do it. And we have to tell Sofia! And-and Mark! And –"

"And breathe," Callie cut in. "We don't need to do everything at once. Let's look at the real estate listings and think about what we want in a house. And you can think about whether you'd rather adopt a baby or, you know, cart one around in your uterus."

Arizona exhaled. "Okay. Okay, yeah. Let's do that. You make sense."

Callie snorted. "Well, someone has to."

Arizona reached into the sink and placed a handful of suds on Callie's nose.

"Mommy!" Sofia scolded, coming into the kitchen with her hands on her hips. "It's not bathtime!"

"Thank you, Sofia," Callie laughed. "See, _she's_ on my side. Thank you for coming to Mama's rescue, baby girl."

"I'm _not_ a baby."

"Sorry, sorry." Callie adopted a serious expression, but Arizona could've seen the mischief twinkling in her eyes from a mile away. "If you were a baby, you wouldn't try to run away when I did this!" Callie lunged for Sofia, who made it about four steps before she found herself high in the air in her mama's arms, being tickled. Sofia shrieked with laughter, squirming and trying unsuccessfully to tickle Callie in retaliation. "Arizona, quick!" Callie shouted. "Nobody's tickling her feet!"

"Mommy, no!" Sofia cried as Arizona tickled the bottom of her left foot. Her protests were completely ineffective; she was laughing too hard to sound at all convincing.

"Babies can't fly, either!" Callie continued as she carried Sofia into the living room. She swung the little girl in the air a few times and then sent her sailing (from a safe height, of course) onto the couch.

"Look!" Sofia cried. "I'm fly-umph!" She landed on her stomach on the couch. She rolled onto her back, laughing so hard she was shaking. "Again!"

"Hmm, maybe tomorrow, Sof," Callie said, rolling her shoulders. "Mama's tired." Sofia looked expectantly at Arizona, who was sneaking toward Callie with a handful of suds.

"Mama, look out!"

"Huh?" Callie turned around. "Hey!" Arizona threw the suds onto the front of Callie's shirt and tackled her onto the couch as Sofia scampered out of the line of fire. Still laughing, she threw herself onto Callie's lap as Callie landed beside her. From the other side of Callie, Arizona pulled on Sofia's arms until Sofia's head rested in her lap and her legs lay across Callie's. As their collective laughter died down, Sofia cuddled into both of her mothers, finding herself in what she considered the best, safest place in the world. She loved cuddling with her father too, of course, but there was only one of him. She had two whole mothers who couldn't get enough of her. When she was together with them like this, they were her whole world.

Blissfully unaware of the conversation that had transpired between her mothers before she'd come into the room, Sofia looked over her shoulder at Callie and said, "I told you look out, Mama. Mommy plays hard 'cause her name is Arizona."

* * *

><p><em>June 2015<em>

Callie and Arizona just barely avoided crashing into each other outside the on-call room they'd each paged the other to.

"I need to talk to you," Arizona said as she opened the door.

"I need to talk to _you_," Callie countered, stepping past her into the room. They sat down on the lower bunk and faced each other. "You first."

Arizona shook her head. "No, I-I really think you should go first."

"Okay!" Callie giggled – _giggled_. She was practically bouncing. "I think I found a house!"

"What?" Arizona's eyes widened and she temporarily forgot what she so desperately wanted to discuss with Callie. "How? When? Where?"

"Okay, slow down there, Investigative Journalist Robbins," Callie chuckled. "Okay, so you know that house we saw in the real estate listings that we liked? The one with the bay window and the big backyard?" Arizona nodded. "I went over there this morning before my shift started –"

"You went without me?"

"Steve called last-minute and said he could squeeze us in. It would've been another month if I didn't go. I'm sorry." Arizona pursed her lips, but she didn't say anything else, and her eyes didn't flash with anger, so Callie continued. "Anyway, it's probably a good thing you didn't come, because it was a total waste of time. The house was, like, falling apart. It would've taken months to make it livable, and even then only just."

Arizona furrowed her brow. "I thought you said you found a house."

Callie slapped Arizona's shoulder. "I'm getting there! Anyway, we were leaving, and Steve drove us around the block, and there was another house with a for-sale sign up." Arizona just nodded, wisely not interrupting Callie again. "It's a little smaller than the other one, but it has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a finished basement _and_ attic, a bigger backyard, and it's closer to the elementary school."

"Wow." Arizona was impressed. "How far from here?" _And how far from Mark?_ was the unspoken question.

"Ten minutes. Seven if you break traffic laws. Which we didn't. That's just what Steve said."

"That's good. I think that's about as far away from Mark as we should get. Far enough to give us some more space, but close enough so that he won't throw a fit and Sofia won't miss him too much."

"Yeah. Want to see pictures?" In response, Arizona pulled her feet up onto the bed and leaned against Callie's side to get a good look at her Blackberry. "Okay. So this is the outside…"

Arizona was sold before Callie showed her the master bathroom. She looked over at Callie, who was smiling smugly. "You made an offer already, didn't you?"

"I – uh…yes." Arizona just laughed and shook her head. "So, wait," Callie said, putting her phone away. "What did you need to talk to me about?"

Arizona took a deep breath. "Okay. Are you ready? It's kind of big."

"Like…like Carter-Madison Grant big, or…?"

"Like I've been thinking about our baby big."

Callie closed her eyes and exhaled in relief. "Okay."

"I want to carry our child."

Callie's eyes snapped open. "Really?"

Arizona nodded. "I love Sofia. I cannot imagine my life without her in it. And I know I'm her mother. But she's not…she's not part of me. Do you know what I mean?" Callie nodded. "If-if we adopted a child, I would love it. I would be its mother and I would _feel_ like its mother every day. But I want a baby that has a part of _me_ in it."

"Okay," Callie said, nodding. "Okay. We'll talk to Dr. Whitman about –"

"I also want our children to be related."

Callie wasn't sure what Arizona was getting at. "O-okay…"

"I want this baby to be a part of me," Arizona repeated.

"Right, you said that already."

"And I want our children to be related. By blood. And by…sperm."

"By – oh my god, are you actually suggesting we use Mark to make our second child? Mark's sperm? As in, our children would be related through him? Half-siblings with Mark as a father? Oh god, I need to sit down."

Arizona stared at her lap. "You are sitting down."

"That's not the point!" Callie's voice rose in pitch. "Do you know what you just said? What would we say to Mark? 'Mark, we're moving. We need a house that's big enough for the baby we're going to have. By the way, that baby is going to be half you. Here's a cup.'?"

"Yeah," Arizona mumbled. "It's a stupid idea."

"No, no," Callie reassured, running a hand over Arizona's knee. "Arizona, no. It's not stupid. I know this is something you've been thinking about a lot. And I like the idea of our kids being related. I don't think it's stupid. I just think it's slightly insane. Not to mention Lexie might kill you."

"Oh, god," Arizona moaned, putting her head in her hands. "I didn't even think about that. This is a bad idea. Maybe we can use your egg instead with someone else's sperm. Our children can be related through you."

"Hey," Callie said gently, peeling Arizona's hands away from her face. "It's not a bad idea, especially if you feel the way you do about our kids being related and this baby being a part of you. It's just big, that's all. Like you said."

"So you don't hate the idea?"

"No. Just give me some time to think about it, okay?"

"What about Lexie?"

"We'll talk to her if this is what we decide. I think she'll be okay. She loves Sofia. Plus we wouldn't be asking Mark to sleep with you." She took Arizona's hand. "You do know what we'd be getting into though, right? Mark Sloan would be this baby's dad. That would be like us dealing with him and Sofia, times two."

"I know." Arizona shrugged. "But Mark is already inextricably linked to us and our family for the rest of our lives. How much worse can it get? We may as well make his fatherhood really worth our while."

* * *

><p><em>Early November 2015<em>

"Okay, so I talked to the movers and they said they could be here at nine next Thursday, which gives us five days to get the rest of the packing done. That shouldn't be a problem, especially if Sofia hangs out with – whoa." Arizona cut herself off mid-sentence and leaned heavily on the breakfast bar.

"Whoa," Callie said, rushing to Arizona's side and laying a gentle hand on her back. "Arizona, are you okay? Here, sit down." She pulled out a stool. Arizona collapsed into it. She was a little too pale for Callie's liking.

"I'm fine," Arizona said. "Just a little dizzy. I guess I haven't eaten much today."

"You need to slow down." Callie slid onto the stool next to Arizona and began rubbing her back. "Between work, moving, and trying to get pregnant, you're going to run yourself into the ground. Just relax. We have plenty of time."

Two months after their conversation in the on-call room, Callie and Arizona had finally sat down with Mark and Lexie and told them what they'd discussed. The conversation had actually gone more smoothly than either of them had expected. Mark had initially been just as surprised as Callie had been when Arizona had said she wanted to carry his baby, but he had eventually warmed to the idea and had actually seemed humbled by it. Lexie seemed to like the idea also – she didn't want children of her own, but she liked the relationship she had with Sofia – close, but not too close.

It had actually been Mark who had broached the topic of Callie, Arizona, and Sofia moving into a house. He said he figured they'd need the space – which he seemed to acknowledge meant both physical room in the house and space to build a family separately from him.

So here they were three and a half months later, packing boxes, negotiating with movers, and dealing with an incensed Sofia, who very much did _not_ want to move. Arizona was on her first round of in-vitro treatments and would know in another week or so if they'd taken. She wondered briefly if her dizzy spell could mean pregnancy, but she didn't want to get her hopes up too high.

"I guess," Arizona relented. "It just…doesn't feel like we do. Ever since we decided to do all of this, I feel all this pressure to do everything _now_. Do you know what I mean?"

"I do." Callie nodded. "And I feel a little bit of that too. But we're just going to take everything one day at a time and we're going to be fine. We are officially trying to grow ourselves a baby now, and we don't want to be…roto-tilling the soil."

"Roto-tilling the soil?" Arizona snorted. "You are a dork."

"Yeah, yeah. Takes one to know one." Callie settled her hand on Arizona's lower back. "How are you feeling now?"

"Still a little dizzy," Arizona admitted. "I don't know what's wrong with me. "

"Well, off the top of my head, it just started getting cold, you're a surgeon, we're moving in five days, we have a four-year-old who hates the idea, and for all we know, there's already a mini-Arizona floating around in your uterus." Arizona chuckled. "Did I cover all my bases?" Arizona just shook her head and leaned into Callie's side. "Aww, sweetie." Callie kissed Arizona's temple, feeling what she always felt when Arizona was under the weather: that simultaneous tug of her heartstrings and dash of amusement at how adorably pathetic Arizona was. "Why don't you go lie down for a while? I'll bring you something to eat and you can get some rest."

Arizona tilted her head up at Callie and smiled. "Okay. Thanks, wifey."

When Mark brought Sofia home from their outing to the petting zoo an hour later, Arizona was sound asleep.

"Hey, guys!" Callie greeted the pair as she opened the door. "Did you have fun?"

"Yeah!" Sofia exclaimed. "I petted a lamb! And I rided a pony!"

"Wow!" Callie replied. "You had a busy day, huh?"

Sofia nodded. "Yeah. I wanna tell Mommy. Mommy!" she called out, starting to take off for her mothers' bedroom.

"Sofia, wait." Callie reached out and gently grabbed Sofia's arm. "Mommy's not feeling so good right now, so we have to be quiet and let her rest, okay? She'll be really excited to hear about your day when she wakes up."

"She okay?" Mark asked.

Callie nodded. "Just run down. We kind of have a lot going on." Mark smirked in response.

Meanwhile, Sofia's face fell and tears began to well in her eyes. "I wanna see Mommy," she whimpered. "I miss her. I want to see her!" Sofia's voice rose in volume.

"Sofia, what did I just say?" Callie asked. "We have to be quiet. Mommy is –"

"No!" Sofia cried. "That's not fair!"

"Sofia –" Mark tried again.

"No!" Sofia was screaming now. Mark opened the door and guided the trio into the hallway so they wouldn't disturb Arizona. The little girl continued screaming and crying, fighting Callie's touch as she steered her into the hall.

"Sofia, _d__é__jalo_," Callie finally commanded. The stern tone she used, combined with the Spanish, was enough to make Sofia abruptly stop screaming and widen her eyes. Even Mark unconsciously took a step backward. Callie squatted down to Sofia's level. "I already told you that Mommy is sleeping and we have to be quiet. You can talk to her when she wakes up. I'm sorry you're disappointed that you can't see her right now, but you need to listen to me, and the way you're acting right now isn't okay."

Sofia dropped her gaze. "'M sorry," she sniffled.

"I love you," Callie reassured, reaching out and smoothing Sofia's hair. "You just need to listen to me when I talk to you, okay?" Sofia nodded. "Ready to go back inside?"

"Yeah."

"Awesome. Want to help me pack? We need to start getting things ready for the movers."

"No!" Sofia broke free from Callie's hand and flung herself at Mark's legs, breaking into a fresh wave of screams and tears. Callie ran a frustrated hand over her face. "I don't want to move! I'm _not_ moving! I want to stay with Daddy!"

"Sofia," Callie said, trying to keep calm, "we talked about –"

"_No!_" Sofia wailed. "No, no! I wanna stay, I wanna stay! I _hate_ moving! You're _mean_, Mama!"

In the grand scheme of insults, Callie knew that calling someone mean wasn't really anything to get worked up about – she'd delivered far worse herself over the years – and she also knew that as upset as Sofia was, she was also more tired right now than anything else. Still, she couldn't stop the feelings of defeat and guilt from settling over her. She wished Arizona were awake. She was generally much better at handling these kinds of situations thanks to her seemingly endless supply of patience. Arizona claimed it was all just because she spent so much time with kids, but Callie was fairly certain that Arizona was some kind of child-whisperer superhero.

Mark could see Callie's distress cloud her eyes. "Sofia." He took his turn now, prying the still-tantruming child from his legs and squatting down to meet her eyes. "That's enough."

"No, no, no!" Not knowing what else to do with them, Sofia flailed her arms, more often than not hitting Mark's knees. Callie almost had to laugh. Sofia may have been tiny, but the girl could pack quite a punch.

"Hey!" Mark raised his voice just slightly and grabbed Sofia's hands. Sofia stopped screaming, but the tears still rolled down her cheeks. "Sofia. You _need_ to calm down. What did your mama just say?"

"I have to move!" Sofia struggled not to scream the words.

"Before that. She said you've got to calm down and stay quiet. You're acting wild right now. And you were just hitting me. You know that's not okay."

"Sorry, Daddy."

"Look at me. Tell me why you're so upset."

"I don't want to move!" Sofia repeated, chin quivering.

"Why not? It'll be fun."

Sofia pointed at the door behind her. "I live _here_!"

"Sofia, honey," Callie interjected. "Sofia turned to look at her. "You, me, and Mommy are going to pack up all of our things and move them into a house. Remember the pictures we showed you?" Sofia nodded. "You saw how pretty it was. It has skylights. You know what those are? Windows in the ceiling! Your room's going to be bigger than your room here, and you get to have your own bathroom. There's a backyard you can play in. And you, me, and Mommy are all going to live there together."

"Can Zola still come over?"

"Of course she can. We're not taking you away, honey. We're just changing where we live."

Sofia turned back to Mark. "Are you coming too?"

"No, kiddo," Mark said gently. "The house is for you and your moms. Lexie and I are going to stay here. But you'll still be close by, and you can still hang out here and sleep over just like you always have."

A few stray tears escaped Sofia's eyes. This was all so much to take in. After four years of everyone more or less living together, Sofia was moving with her mothers into a new house while her father and Lexie stayed behind. It was less scary now that everything had been clearly explained to her once and for all, but it was still a little daunting. She looked at Callie again. "Can we get a dog?"

Callie laughed. "We'll see, Sof. One thing at a time."

"Everybody okay now?" Mark directed the question at Sofia as he got to his feet.

Before anyone could answer, a door opened and Arizona stepped into the hallway. Sofia's face lit up and she ran to Arizona, who bent down and scooped Sofia up into her arms. "There you are!" she exclaimed. "What's everyone doing out here?"

"Oh, nothing," Callie said, slinging an arm around Arizona and Sofia. "Just averting disasters and waiting for you." She leaned around Sofia and kissed Arizona's cheek.

"Mommy," Sofia said, "I petted a lamb and rided a pony. Can we get a dog?"

* * *

><p>Close to two weeks later, Callie, Arizona, and Sofia were nearly all settled in the new house. Sofia loved it, as promised, although she'd slept the first night in it with her bedroom light on, the combination of the newness and the dark too much for her. She loved running around in the backyard while Arizona supervised from the new winter garden she was cultivating – as long as she wasn't feeling too sick.<p>

Arizona had gotten over whatever she'd had, but then, just a few days later, she'd gotten sick again and had yet to start feeling better. She wanted to believe it was morning sickness, but she felt nauseated for the better part of every day and some days were better or worse than others. Still, it was about time to test whether the in-vitro treatments had taken, so she and Callie would soon know one way or the other.

Sitting on the exam table in Dr. Whitman's office, Arizona felt slightly ridiculous. Despite her impressive surgical career, she hated having her blood drawn. The sight of a needle piercing her skin made her feel even sicker than she did already. Even with Callie holding tight to her hand, Arizona had barely been able to stifle a whimper, and now, five minutes after the fact, she was finally calm again.

"Sorry I'm such a baby," Arizona said quietly. "I don't know what my problem is. I'm fine with needles when I'm sticking them in other people." She shifted her position slightly, still burrowed securely in Callie's arms. "I didn't crush your hand, did I?"

"Nah, you're fine," Callie chuckled, giving Arizona a squeeze. "Besides, we like babies, remember? That's kind of why we're here."

Arizona laughed. Dr. Whitman – an OB/GYN who didn't work at the hospital – had offered to run Arizona's blood work while she and Callie waited, and the two had opted to stay in the office and wait the thirty or so minutes it would take.

"Ugh," Arizona whined. "I feel so sick."

"Are you going to throw up?" Callie asked softly, weaving the fingers of one hand through Arizona's hair.

"No," Arizona said after a beat. "I don't think so." She took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, sweetie."

"What if I'm not pregnant, Calliope?" Arizona asked.

"Then we'll try again. You know it could take a lot of tries. We're not going to give up."

"No, I mean…what if I'm not sick because I'm pregnant? What if I'm really _sick_? What if there's something wrong with me?"

"Nothing is wrong with you, Arizona," Callie said, nuzzling her face into Arizona's neck. "If you aren't pregnant, you probably have a stomach bug."

"If it's a stomach bug, how come you and Sofia haven't caught it?"

"Probably because you've been washing your hands like an obsessive maniac."

The pair sat in silence for several minutes. Callie allowed her eyelids to droop closed.

Arizona shifted suddenly. "Calliope. Callie!"

"Hmm?"

"I'm going to throw up," Arizona said urgently. Callie quickly loosened her hold and allowed Arizona to hop down from the exam table. Arizona threw the door open and bolted down the hallway. By the time Callie had caught up to her, she was already on her knees, heaving into the toilet.

"Arizona," Callie breathed. "It's okay, it's okay. Just breathe." Arizona responded with an anguished moan and another heave. Callie knelt beside her, holding her hair and rubbing her back. "You're okay," Callie reassured once Arizona seemed to have finished. "Just sit here a minute, okay? Get your bearings. Do you want me to find Dr. Whitman?"

"No," Arizona said. "If I'm sitting here, you're sitting here. If Dr. Whitman needs us, he'll find us. He's not going to be afraid of a women's bathroom." Callie smirked and sat down beside Arizona, sliding an arm around her shoulders. "If I am pregnant, I swear to God this is my body's natural reaction to Mark Sloan's baby inside me."

Callie laughed. "We should warn Lexie now, just in case."

They were interrupted from their musings by rapping at the bathroom door and Dr. Whitman's voice. "Arizona? Callie? Are you in here?"

Callie stood up to open the door. "Hi. We disappeared. Sorry."

"Not a problem." Dr. Whitman stepped awkwardly into the bathroom and noticed Arizona sitting on the floor, looking pale and tired. "Arizona, are you all right?"

"Oh, I'm peachy. Just throwing up everything I've ever eaten in my life. It's _awesome_. You should try it sometime." Arizona's eyes widened as she realized how she'd just spoken to her OB. "Oh. I-I'm sorry."

"That's perfectly fine," Dr. Whitman chuckled. Callie hid a laugh behind her hand. "I'm sorry you're feeling so crummy. But," he cleared his throat, "the good news is that morning sickness usually only lasts a few months. Congratulations. You're about eight weeks pregnant."

Arizona's face went completely slack as her eyes widened once again. Callie looked back and forth between Dr. Whitman and Arizona, unsure whom to address first.

"I'm…what?" Arizona asked in a hushed tone. "I…_really_?"

"Really," Dr. Whitman nodded. "Congratulations again, both of you. I, uh, I'll be in my office. Come back whenever you're ready and we'll finish talking." Dr. Whitman smiled at the pair and stepped out of the bathroom.

"Oh my god," Callie whispered. "Arizona, you…we…oh my god."

"Oh my god!" Arizona said, and then promptly burst into tears, standing up and rushing into Callie's arms. "Oh my god, Calliope, I'm pregnant. We're really going to have another baby! Can you believe it? Our first try!"

"See?" Callie said, sniffling through her own happy tears. "I told you you're not sick. You're just allergic to Sloan."

* * *

><p><em>January 2016<em>

Arizona was starting to show.

It wasn't necessarily obvious to the average passerby, but given that nearly everyone she knew was a doctor, she was bound to be interrogated soon even if she and Callie didn't sit everyone down and announce the pregnancy.

"When are you due?"

"Do you know the sperm donor?"

"Oh my god, it's _Mark_?"

"Does Lexie know?"

"Are you going to find out the sex?"

"Is it kicking yet? Can I feel your stomach?"

"Who's Dr. Whitman? I want to see his credentials."

"Have you picked godparents?"

"Does Sofia know?"

Callie and Arizona were able to field all of the questions with minimal difficulty (they didn't want to know the sex ahead of time and the godparents were going to be Teddy and Henry) except for the last one. Sofia didn't know. She thrived on the undivided attention of her three parents and Lexie, and they didn't know how she'd take the news. She didn't seem to embrace change, that was for sure. But they couldn't keep this from her forever.

In the end, Sofia initiated the conversation herself. It was a morning Callie and Arizona were spending together before Callie had to work, except Arizona was so far spending it on her knees in the company of the toilet.

"Mommy's sick a lot," Sofia announced through a mouthful of scrambled eggs.

Callie almost choked on her coffee. "Uh, y-yes. Yes, she has been sick a lot. But don't worry, Sofia. She's okay."

"But why?" Sofia insisted. "When my tummy hurts I take a nap and feel better tomorrow." "Tomorrow" was Sofia's catchall term for "the next day."

"Yes, well…Mommy has a different kind of tummyache."

"What kind?"

"Um…uh…"

Arizona thankfully chose that moment to appear in the kitchen. "How are my two favorite ladies this morning?"

"What kind of tummyache do you have, Mommy?" Sofia jumped right in. "Why don't you feel better tomorrow?"

Arizona's eyes widened as she sank into a kitchen chair next to Callie, who squeezed her knee in support. "Sofia, sweetie, you…you know how we told you that Mama and Tia Aria are sisters? How when Tia Aria was a little girl, her parents made another baby and had Mama?"

Sofia nodded. "Tia Aria is your big sister and you're her little sister," she told Callie. Callie nodded and beamed with pride. Her kid was totally smart.

"That's right," Arizona said encouragingly. "Well, Mama and I are going to have a baby soon. You're going to be a big sister, sweetie."

Both Arizona and Callie were smiling disarmingly, but Sofia's face was uncharacteristically blank. She looked between the two of them, unsure of why exactly they were both so happy. She looked down at her plate of eggs; maybe they could provide some insight. No such luck, so she looked back at her mothers. Finally, after a long moment, she said, "Why?"

Neither Callie nor Arizona had expected that question. They'd figured Sofia would focus on the how and then when. It never occurred to them that she might wonder why.

"Because," Arizona said, "we like our family so much that we wanted to make it a little bigger. And we wanted to give you a brother or sister to play with. So we decided to have another baby."

"Oh." Sofia stared into her orange juice. She supposed that made sense, although something still didn't sit right with her. What did they need another baby for? Wasn't she enough? And she didn't need a brother or sister to play with. She had Zola, plus Caitlin and Zachary from daycare, where she went occasionally. She looked back up at Callie and Arizona, who were still smiling, albeit a little more nervously. "What are you making it out of?" Sofia was no stranger to making things. She made towns out of blocks. She made Play-Doh creations. Sometimes she helped her mama make dinner.

Callie and Arizona exchanged panicked glances. How in the world were they going to explain this one?

"Sof, do you remember what I said about how we made you?" Callie hedged.

"I growed in your tummy."

Callie nodded. That was really all Sofia needed to know at this point. In fact, if Callie had anything to say about it, it was all she needed to know until she was twenty-five. "That's right. Well, we made the new baby the same way, except this time it's growing in Mommy's tummy."

This was just getting worse and worse. Not only were Sofia's mothers apparently dissatisfied enough with her that they needed another kid, but that kid was growing in her mommy. _Her_ mommy. And now _her_ mommy was growing her own baby and was going to be someone else's mommy. Surely Arizona couldn't be mommy to two kids, especially since this one was actually going to be _hers_, home-grown in her tummy and all.

"Did Daddy help make it like he helped make me?"

"Yeah, he did. You and your brother or sister are going to have the same mommies and the same daddy."

And worse still. Sofia was going to have to share her daddy with this new baby, too. Which inevitably meant she'd also have to share Lexie. Swallowing past the lump in her throat, she asked, "The baby's really growing in Mommy's tummy?"

"Yeah," Arizona said. "Pretty cool, huh?"

Not in the slightest. "Can I see it?"

"No, sweetie," Arizona laughed. "It isn't ready to come out yet. It's going to live in my tummy a little while longer. But you'll be able to see it grow, because my tummy will get bigger. That's why I've had so many tummyaches. Sometimes a baby growing in a mommy's stomach can make her feel a little sick."

"I hate the baby," Sofia declared.

"Sofia, what –"

"It's hurting Mommy! It's mean. I hate it."

"Sofia –" Callie tried.

"I don't _want_ a baby!" Sofia said, voice cracking slightly as she fought against her tears. She glared at Callie. She didn't quite understand her mama's part in all of this; the baby was growing inside her mommy and somehow her daddy had helped plant it there, but surely she was complicit somehow. "I don't want it! I want our old house!" Sofia hopped down from her seat at the kitchen table and ran for her bedroom. She didn't slam her door, but Callie and Arizona heard her fling herself onto her bed and begin to sob loudly.

Callie turned to Arizona and blinked. "That could've gone better." Arizona nodded, dazed. "Hey, it's okay. She'll come around. I seem to recall you reacting something like that when I told you I was pregnant."

"Hey!" Arizona cried. "Not fair. That was _totally_ different."

"Kind of," Callie mused. "Anyway, my point is you needed time to process. So does she. It's a big deal."

Arizona nodded again, wiping away a stray tear. "I finally understand your hormone casserole thing."

"It'll get better," Callie promised, kissing the top of Arizona's head. "But in the meantime, I happen to like casserole."

* * *

><p>Much to Callie and Arizona's surprise, Sofia stayed in her room the rest of the morning and into the afternoon. She wouldn't come out to say goodbye to Callie when she left for her shift.<p>

"I'm leaving for work now, Sofia," Callie had said from the doorway of Sofia's room. Sofia didn't say anything. "I'll be home after you go to sleep." Silence. "Do you want to come give me a kiss goodbye?"

"No," came the barely audible response.

"Have fun with Mommy tonight, okay? I love you."

Silence.

Arizona, alone now with a still-silent Sofia – she'd come out for dinner, hadn't eaten much, and had retreated back to her room – understood the girl was processing, but Sofia was always all about the goodbye hugs, and she usually made fun dinner conversation. If Sofia wouldn't even acknowledge Callie's departure, she was even more upset than Arizona had thought. And Arizona was determined to fix it.

"Sofia, sweetie?" Arizona knocked softly on Sofia's bedroom door, which was open halfway. The sight before her broke her heart: Sofia lay curled up on her bed, facing away from the door, crying and sniffling softly. At the foot of her bed sat her Hello Kitty backpack, which from what Arizona could see, contained Barky, a pair of underwear, and a toothbrush. Arizona's chest constricted at seeing her little girl so upset. "Sofia, can I come in?"

Arizona was met with a muffled "no." She hesitated in the doorway for a moment before ultimately deciding to go in anyway.

She sat down gingerly at the foot of the bed, beside Sofia's backpack. "Where are you going?" she asked softly.

"Gonna go live with Cristina," Sofia mumbled after a brief silence.

"How come?"

Sofia was quiet again before she sniffled and said, "You don't need me anymore."

Arizona felt like all the air had been knocked out of her. "What?" she whispered. "Why on Earth do you think that?"

"You made a new baby," Sofia replied, as though that explained everything. "I'm gonna go live with Cristina and you and Mama are gonna have a new baby."

"Sofia," Arizona said, beginning to understand, "we're going to have a new baby, but we're going to have you, too. We still love you. You're going to be the baby's sister. We're going to have two kids."

"Why do you want another kid? You-you have _me_."

"Sweetie," Arizona breathed. She placed a hand on Sofia's back. "We have you, and I am so, _so_ happy. You made my life better the second you came into it. You make it _wonderful_ every day. We're not having a baby because you're not enough for us, honey. We're having a baby because we love our family so much that we want it to get bigger. And someday, when you grow up and have your own babies, they can have an aunt or uncle the way you have Tia Aria."

Sofia ventured a long look at Arizona, eyes round and Callie-pout firmly in place. "Do you still love me?"

Arizona thought her heart might actually explode. "Oh, Sofia, yes. I love you so much sometimes I think my heart's going to burst from all the love I keep inside it."

"Are you gonna love me when the new baby comes?"

"Absolutely, yes. I promise. I will always, _always_ love you, Sofia. Nothing will ever change that."

"Do Mama and Daddy and Lexie still love me?"

"Yeah, sweetie, they do. I promise they do. We love you forever. All of us."

Sofia nodded, but something still weighed on her mind. She chewed her lip in deep thought. "But you can't be my mommy anymore."

Arizona's brow furrowed. "Wha-why?"

"The baby's in your tummy. You're the baby's mommy. So you can't be my mommy too." Sofia cast her eyes downward as they welled up with tears again.

Arizona sighed. "Sofia, no. That isn't true. That's not how it works." Sofia sniffled. "Sofia, look at me. Listen, okay? This is really important." Arizona waited until she was sure Sofia was looking at her and wasn't going to look away. "You grew inside Mama's tummy, but I am your mommy. _Always_. You are my daughter, Sofia, and where you came from or whose tummy you came out of doesn't make a difference. You are here, in my life, because I am your mommy and you are my girl. Don't you _ever_ let anyone tell you I'm not your mommy just because you didn't grow inside me. Okay?" Sofia nodded slowly. "No matter how many babies we have, I'm never going to run out of love. You know what? There's enough love in my heart to love you _and_ the baby, _and_ still have some left over for Mama." Arizona winked at Sofia, who allowed a quick, cautious smile to steal across her face. "When the baby's here, things are going to be a little weird. Babies can't walk or talk or do anything for themselves, so we have to help and do everything for them. They also don't sleep all night like you do. So for a while, after the baby gets here, things are going to be kind of crazy around the house. But it doesn't mean I love you any less, got it?" Sofia nodded again, more firmly this time. "And you can always, _always_ talk to me – or Mama, or Daddy, or Lexie – about _anything_ that's bothering you. Okay?"

"Okay."

"No running away to live with Cristina?"

Sofia smirked and shook her head.

Arizona held Sofia's gaze for a moment before she opened her arms. "Come here."

Suddenly, Sofia couldn't get into her mommy's embrace quickly enough. She threw herself into Arizona's lap and buried her head in her chest. For her part, Arizona wrapped her arms around Sofia and held her as tightly as she could without hurting her and rocked gently from side to side.

"Your tummy feels funny," Sofia remarked.

"Wait until the baby starts kicking," Arizona mused. "We'll be able to feel it. That'll really feel funny."

"How come it makes you sick?" Sofia pointed her gaze down at Arizona's baby bump and glared.

"Oh, sweetie, it isn't the baby's fault. It's just that when a baby grows inside a mommy, her insides have to change a little to make sure it's healthy and comfortable. Sometimes that makes the mommy's tummy hurt. But the baby isn't hurting me. It's okay. And after it comes, my insides will change back."

Sofia nestled even deeper into Arizona's arms. "I love you, Mommy."

Arizona kissed Sofia's head. "Oh, my sweet Sofia." She rested her chin on Sofia's crown. "I love you so much. Listen to me. You are _my_ sweet pea. Always, forever. That is never, ever, _ever _going to change." For the first time that day, Sofia giggled, followed promptly by a yawn. "It's time to get ready for bed, missy. It's late."

Fully expecting Sofia to object, Arizona was pleasantly surprised when all she got in response was a quiet "Can I sleep with you?"

Arizona smiled and tucked a piece of hair behind Sofia's ear. "You know what? I think tonight that would be an excellent idea." Sofia beamed. "But hey, let's put this backpack away first, alright?"

"Okay." Sofia reluctantly climbed off of Arizona's lap and took her underwear and toothbrush out of the backpack and then wrestled Barky out of it.

"Why Cristina?" Arizona asked.

"She's my godmother." Sofia gave Arizona a look that was a perfect replica of Callie's "duh" face. "Also, her and Owen don't have any kids."

Arizona laughed heartily. "Oh, sweetie," she said. "Trust me, there is a reason for that."

* * *

><p><em>February 2016<em>

"Arizona! Put that down!"

Arizona looked at the half-full laundry basket in her hands. "Put what down?"

"_That_!" Callie gestured, overdramatically in Arizona's opinion, at the laundry basket. "You are five months pregnant. You should _not_ be lifting things."

"I'm not lifting things. I'm doing laundry." Callie placed her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow. "Callie, seriously. This thing weighs like four pounds. I have charts at work that are heavier."

"Yeah, well, your interns should be carrying those. That's what God made them for."

"Callie –"

"Give me the laundry, Arizona."

"What? No. I'm perfectly capable of –"

"Give. Me. The laundry."

Arizona fixed Callie with her best death glare and shoved the basket into her arms. "Under normal circumstances I'd be thrilled that you're offering to do the laundry for me, but right now I just hate you."

"Mm. Good. Are these warm wash or cold?"

* * *

><p>"My wife thinks I'm an invalid." Arizona plopped into the chair Teddy had pulled out beside her at the cafeteria table.<p>

Teddy gave Arizona a once-over. "Well, from the looks of it, that baby parasite is getting worse and worse."

"Teddy! Don't call your godchild a parasite. And I'm serious. Callie's driving me crazy. Yesterday she wouldn't let me do laundry. And right now I'm supposed to be talking to the chief about reducing my hours and the number of surgeries I do in a day. Which, if Callie asks, I did, and the chief can't spare me at all for another month and a half."

"Yeah, imaginary chiefs of surgery tend to be hardasses like that."

Arizona stabbed at her salad. "Okay, I am not getting the sympathetic vibe from you."

Teddy sighed. "I'm sorry. I discovered an inoperable tumor on a woman's lung this morning. Henry's in the hospital again. And even when he's not, he never does laundry."

"Sorry." Arizona patted Teddy's hand. "He'll be okay though, right?"

"He shouldn't get any worse, at least."

"Good, that's good." Arizona squeezed Teddy's hand. "Seriously, though, don't call my baby a parasite."

"Arizona!" Arizona cringed as virtually every head in the cafeteria turned toward her. Callie, disapproving frown in place, marched toward the table where Arizona and Teddy were sitting.

"Hey, Callie," Teddy greeted her as she approached.

"Whatever. Arizona, _why_ are you here?"

"I work here," Arizona deadpanned.

"You know what I mean. Don't give me that. Why aren't you at home?"

"My shift doesn't end for another five hours. I'm removing a very sick, very disgusting gallbladder at three."

"Yum," Teddy remarked as she took a bite of her sandwich. "What appropriate mealtime conversation."

Neither Callie nor Arizona acknowledged her.

"How many surgeries have you done already today?" Callie demanded.

Arizona tallied in her head. "Four."

"Arizona! You were supposed to talk to the chief!"

"I…he-he wasn't in his office," Arizona said unconvincingly, not meeting Callie's eyes. Teddy coughed conspicuously.

"Arizona, you should be at home resting. And eating something more substantial than _salad_." Callie glared at the salad as if it was to blame for the ensuing argument. "God knows you've already been on your feet today way longer than you should be."

"Callie, I can manage –"

"How many breaks have you taken today? Are you tired? That's a dumb question. Of course you're tired. How long were those surgeries?"

"Callie –"

"You have residents and interns, you know. They should be helping, doing the lifting for you."

"They are, but –"

"Are you drinking enough water? Maybe tonight Sofia should stay with –"

"Callie, shut up!" Arizona finally yelled, causing several heads to turn in her direction once again. "Give it a rest, okay? For the love of God, I'm pregnant. I'm not dying!"

Callie's head snapped back as if she'd been slapped across the face. Without another word, she turned and stormed out of the cafeteria.

"Okay," Teddy said once she was out of earshot. "What the _hell_ was that?"

"I don't know!" Arizona shook her head, bewildered. "This is what I was talking about. Yesterday it was laundry and today she, like…wants me to quit my job or something!"

"It doesn't make sense," Teddy agreed. "I mean, when she was pregnant, she was always –"

"Oh, god." Arizona covered her face with one hand.

"What?"

"When she was pregnant," Arizona repeated. "Teddy, I am an idiot. I have to go." She picked up her tray and started to leave.

"Hey, whoa." Teddy stopped her. "There's still cake on that thing. Leave it."

* * *

><p>"Talk to your wife." Mark intercepted Arizona's search for Callie.<p>

"That's what I'm trying to do, Mark. Do you know where she is?"

"Attendings' lounge. Seriously, talk to her. I asked her for a consult and she started yelling at me in Spanish. I'm kind of afraid of her right now."

"Oh, Calliope," Arizona murmured under her breath. "Thanks, Mark. I'll go find her now."

Callie didn't turn her head when the door to the lounge opened behind her and Arizona stepped through it, opting instead to keep staring into the cup of coffee in her hands.

"Hey," Arizona called softly.

"Mm."

"Calliope," Arizona said, sitting down on the couch beside Callie and placing a hand on her knee. "Talk to me."

"I don't have anything to say."

Arizona quirked an eyebrow. "Do you really expect me to believe that? Come on, give me some credit."

Callie sighed. "You're five months pregnant, Arizona."

"And you're thinking about what happened when you were five months pregnant."

Callie looked at Arizona, eyes glistening, lip trembling, and nodded. "I just don't want anything to happen to you," she murmured. It was so quiet, so unsure, that Callie had trouble hearing herself.

"I know. But Calliope, look at me. I'm right here. There's a beautiful, healthy baby growing inside me. And as far as I know, you're not planning to hurl me through a windshield anytime soon, so I think we're okay."

"I was fine, Arizona," Callie said brokenly. "I was perfectly fine. I had a beautiful, healthy baby too. And then we almost died."

"I am so, so sorry, Calliope," Arizona whispered. "God, if I had just –"

"No. Stop. Don't do that. It was an _accident_. I'm not blaming you. I never have and I never will. I just…I want to make sure nothing happens to you. Or the baby."

"Sweetie, when you were pregnant I made you drink smoothies made of leafy greens and wheat germ."

Callie scoffed. "Yeah, I know. Sometimes I still taste them in my nightmares. But what does that have to do with –"

"I was the one who wanted the amniocentesis, remember? I wouldn't let you move your stuff back into your own apartment. I barely even let you have sex with me because I was so worried you'd overexert yourself."

"Okay, yeah, you were annoying. So, what? You can be annoying but I can't?"

"My point," Arizona said, ignoring Callie's barb "is that I spent months worrying and fretting over you, trying to make sure everything was perfect and absolutely nothing went wrong. And despite all of that, something awful happened anyway, something we never in a million years could have planned for. No amount of hovering or OB appointments or chunky smoothies could have prepared us for what happened. Sometimes things just…happen."

"I don't want them to," Callie whispered.

"Trust me, I don't either," Arizona promised. "But sweetheart, sometimes they just do, and you won't know until then. If something happens, you kick into gear and do what you need to do. In the meantime, all you can do is be here and be you. I don't need you to order me off my feet or carry my lunch tray for me or protect me from my job. I just need you to trust me. Trust that I know what I'm doing and I can handle myself. I need you to support me. I need you to love me."

"I can do that," Callie said quietly, although the fire and passion behind her words spoke volumes. "I already do." She grabbed both of Arizona's hands. "I do trust you. I absolutely support you. And I love you, Arizona. _So_ much."

"I know you do," Arizona said softly, staring gently right into Callie's eyes. "You've been amazing. Thank you for taking such good care of me. And hey, you know what? The next time I get a craving for peanut butter and cheese, you'll be the first person I call."

"Gee, thanks."

"And you know what else? The next time you want to do the laundry, you won't hear any complaints from me."

* * *

><p><em>March 2016<em>

"I am officially a whale," Arizona groaned, sitting down in the cafeteria between Callie and Mark. "No, a hippopotamus. No, make that an inflamed hippopotamus. On steroids."

"Arizona," Callie chuckled, "you look beautiful. You're glowing."

Arizona huffed and thankfully didn't notice when Callie kicked Mark under the table.

"Oh, uh, yeah," he stammered. "Glowing. Really, Arizona, you look fantastic."

"Both of you are so full of…you know what," Arizona growled.

"Hey," Callie protested, throwing her hands up in mock offense. "The only thing I am full of is love for you."

Arizona rolled her eyes. "Oh, _please_." Mark cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Suddenly, Arizona's entire demeanor changed as she saw the only thing that consistently made her forget her pregnancy-induced crankiness these days: Sofia, being led by – or was she leading – Lexie, through the cafeteria toward her parents' table.

"Hey, chica!" Callie greeted her. "Hey, Lexie. Thanks for watching her."

"Mama!" Sofia replied happily, climbing into the vacant chair next to Callie. From the chair, she wasted no time in repositioning herself in Callie's lap. "I love you, Mama. Hi, Mommy. Hi, Daddy." Arizona and Mark responded in kind.

"We were just talking about how beautiful Mommy looks, Sof," Callie filled Sofia in. "She looks _really_ beautiful, doesn't she?"

Sofia nodded earnestly. "You look like Sleeping Beauty, Mommy. Except you're awake."

Arizona grinned. "Thank you, sweetie."

Sofia smiled back and leaned against Callie's chest. "Guess what," she announced to the table. "It's almost my birthday!"

"No way, really?" Callie gasped in mock surprise.

"Remind me how old you're turning," Mark said. "Because I want to say sixteen, but…" Lexie rolled her eyes and nudged Mark's shoulder with her own.

"Daddy!" Sofia groaned. "I'm _five_!" Abruptly serious, she tiled her head up to look at Callie. "Right?"

Callie laughed, dismissing her concern at Sofia's not knowing her own age in favor of the adorable look on her little face. "Yes, Sofia, you're right."

"Are you excited for your party, Sofia?" Arizona asked. Sofia nodded eagerly. She was having a beach party this year: to beat Seattle's constant rain, everyone was to come to the party in their bathing suits and hang out in the living room, which would be decorated with towels, a blue tarp "ocean," and palm tree decals. "I bet you can't wait to show everyone your – oh. Oh god!"

Four panicked heads instantly whipped in Arizona's direction.

"What? What's wrong?" Callie demanded, frantically reaching for her wife.

Mark paled. "You're not going into labor already, are you?"

Sofia stayed quiet, eyes welling up as she curled further into Callie.

"What do you need?" Lexie sprang to her feet. "I can get you some ice chips or-or –"

"No, no, guys, stop," Arizona laughed. "The baby just kicked, that's all."

A hush fell over the group. Lexie sat back down. Sofia, feeling Callie's body relax, figured everything was okay, at least for now. Still, her face remained wary.

"Sofia," Arizona said gently. "It's okay, sweetie. When the baby kicks, that's just its way of telling me it's healthy. It feels a little weird sometimes, but it doesn't hurt. Do you want to feel it?"

Sofia shrank back into Callie again. "I don't know."

"It's okay, honey. See? Watch." Callie placed her own hand on Arizona's stomach and waited for the action. "Keep talking," she instructed. "I think it responds to your voice."

Arizona giggled. "Anyway, Sofia, I think I was saying I bet you can't wait to show everyone your new bathing suit." Sofia nodded, eyes lighting up as the topic of her birthday party was reintroduced. "What games should we play?"

"Hula hoop!" Sofia said excitedly. "And beach balls. Oh, and can we make sandcastles?"

"I don't know if we'll be able to manage sandcastles," Arizona said. "It might be hard without sand. But we can definitely do –"

"There!" Callie exclaimed. It's kicking! Oh my god!" she squealed. "This is so cool!" She turned to Sofia. "Sof, it's okay, I promise. Here, put your hand right here." Cautiously, Sofia extended her hand and placed it on Arizona's stomach, just in time for the hardest kick yet.

"You feel that?" Arizona asked. "The baby's saying, 'Happy birthday, big sister! I love you!'"

Sofia smiled. "Really?"

"Oh, absolutely. Trust me, Sofia, I know these things."

Lexie reached across the table. "May I?" she asked shyly.

"Of course." Arizona caught Mark looking at her out of the corner of her eye. She sighed dramatically. "Yes, Mark, you can feel too." Mark cleared his throat good-naturedly and placed his hand next to Lexie's.

After everyone had gushed about the kicking baby for another minute, Callie stood up and pulled Sofia to her feet. "Well, we have to go. We've got a beach party to plan."

"Okay!" Sofia agreed easily. "Just wait a second, Mama." She ran over to Lexie and hugged her around the waist. "Bye, Lexie. Are you gonna come to my party?"

Lexie laughed. "I have never turned down an opportunity to wear a swimsuit. I wouldn't miss it."

Sofia nodded in approval. "Bye, Daddy," she said, hugging Mark in the same way. "I love you."

Mark hugged back. "Love you too, munchkin. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Okay." She nodded again before moving on to Arizona. It took her a second to figure out how, but Sofia stretched her arms around Arizona as best she could and rested her head on the baby bump. "Mommy," she murmured.

"Hi, sweet pea." Arizona threaded her fingers through Sofia's hair.

"I love you a lot a lot, Mommy," Sofia declared. "Are you gonna be home to tuck me in tonight?"

"You betcha," Arizona promised. "And I love you a lot a lot more."

"No, but –" Sofia was interrupted by the baby kicking against her face. "Whoa!" she giggled.

"See?" Arizona said. "I told you. The baby loves you already."

"Sof, come on!" Callie called. "I'm not getting any younger!"

"Okay." Sofia reluctantly peeled herself off of Arizona. "Bye, Mommy. Bye, baby. I love you!" She trotted over to Callie and took her hand, and the two of them walked away.

"So, I have a question," Mark said. "If you're Sleeping Beauty, who am I?"

"Well," Arizona replied slowly. "Lexie's Belle, obviously. And Mark, you…I guess that makes you a beast."

* * *

><p><em>May 2016<em>

Saturday morning found Sofia and Zola coloring together at a little table in the hospital daycare center while all of their collective parents – and Lexie – were stuck working. Arizona spent the majority of her working days behind her desk at this point, but she still got called in for consults, much to Callie's chagrin.

"What are you drawing?" Zola looked up from her picture of a dog to inspect Sofia's artwork.

"Me." Sofia, still not particularly adept with crayons but a passionate artist all the same, added a pink bow to the top of her head. "It's for my mommy when she goes to the hops-pital to have a baby."

"That doesn't look like you," Zola said.

"Yes it does." Sofia wrinkled her nose. Okay, maybe it didn't look _exactly_ like her, but surely Arizona would know. And she really only needed it for the couple of days she'd be spending in the hospital so she wouldn't forget what Sofia looked like.

Callie and Arizona had already begun warming Sofia up to the idea that Arizona would have to go to the hospital and stay there for a day or two when she had the baby. Sofia was by no means a fan of the idea, but at least she wouldn't be surprised.

"Is it a boy baby or a girl baby?" Zola asked as she drew a red collar on her dog.

"I don't know."

"Where's it gonna sleep?"

"In the upstairs room. My mama painted it blue."

"Oh," Zola said. "It has to be a boy, then. Boys have to have blue stuff and girls have to have pink stuff." Zola, wrapping up her year of kindergarten, was fairly convinced that she knew everything.

"Nuh-uh," Sofia countered. "My mommy's favorite color is blue. And my mama's favorite color is purple."

Zola considered that for a moment. "Yeah, but still. You can only give boy babies blue stuff."

"Nuh-uh," Sofia said again, although now she couldn't be sure that her mothers weren't breaking some hugely important law. She'd have to ask Lexie later. Lexie really did know everything. "Anyway, my crib is in there. My mommy said the baby's gonna sleep in it!"

"So?"

"It's _mine_!"

Zola finished her dog picture and started a new one of a ballerina. "No it's not. You don't use it anymore."

"Yeah, but it's _mine_!"

"You're lucky," Zola said. "Stephanie in my class's mom had a baby and the baby has to sleep in her room."

Sofia's eyes widened. "_Really_?"

Zola nodded. "What are you gonna name it?"

Sofia shrugged. "I don't know."

"You have to name it something," Zola advised. "And you should name it now in case your mom has the baby early. That's what happened to Stephanie's mom. She had the baby two weeks early."

"My mama had me even more early," Sofia bragged. "My mommy said I was this big." She held her hands about eight inches apart.

"Babies can't be that little," Zola argued.

"Well, _I_ was. But I growed."

"You still have to have a name," Zola reminded her. "Just in case."

Sofia thought hard. She wasn't sure why this was her job. Besides, what were you supposed to name a baby you didn't really want? "Grasshopper?"

"That's not a name." Zola rolled her eyes. "It has to be a real name."

"Shrek?"

"You can't name a baby Shrek."

"Why not? Says who?"

"You just can't. And says everybody."

"What about Cruella? Or Cinderella? Ooh, or –"

"Sofia!" Zola cried. "It has to be a _real _name! You're not doing it right!"

Sofia pouted. "You're a bossy mean-head!"

"Well, you're a bad draw-er!"

"I am _not_!" Sofia stood up and stomped her foot. "You're a poopy pants!"

Zola stood up too and put her hands on her hips. "You're a baby!"

"Nuh-uh!" Sofia yelled. "_You're_ a baby!"

"Shut up!"

"_You_ shut up!"

"No, _you_ shut up!"

"No, _you_ shut up!" Sofia's arm flew out and she was about to hit Zola when she felt a hand on her shirt collar.

"_Hey_!" Sofia whirled around, surprised to see a stern-looking Lexie behind her.

"Aunt Lexie!" Zola cried. "Sofia told me to shut up!"

"Zola called me a baby!"

"She called me a poopy pants!"

"She said I'm a bad draw-er!"

"She said I'm bossy!"

"You _are_ bossy!"

"_Girls_!" Lexie cut in. "Stop it, both of you. Stop insulting each other and calling each other names. And Sofia, you know better than to hit."

Sofia protested. "But she was –"

"It doesn't matter," Lexie said. "We don't hit people. Ever."

"I wanna go home," Sofia mumbled, lower lip beginning to tremble.

"See?" Zola said, tugging on Lexie's hand. "She's gonna cry. I told you, she's a baby."

"Everybody cries, Zola," Lexie replied. "It doesn't make them babies. If Sofia's feeling sad or upset, she can cry all she wants, and we'll be here to cheer her up."

"But she thinks you can name babies Shrek. Or Cinderella."

"I'm sure there's someone out there who's done that," Lexie reasoned. "And Sofia can think whatever she wants. You go to school every day, Zola, but remember, Sofia's younger than you. Remember when you used to think jelly beans were vegetables? But Sofia, I have to say, I don't see either of your moms naming the new baby Shrek."

"But what if it's green?"

"Well, then I think a whole lot of other questions are going to come up before anybody starts thinking about names," Lexie said. "Now, do you two have something to say to each other?"

"Sorry," Zola said quietly.

Sofia stared at her shoes. "Me too."

"See? That's better," Lexie said. "Now, are you both ready to go? Zola, your mom and dad are still working, and Sofia, you're hanging out with your dad and me today and sleeping over." Both girls nodded and turned back to the table where they'd been sitting to clean up their crayons and gather their artwork.

"You can name your baby Cinderella if you want," Zola allowed.

"Sorry I called you a poopy pants," Sofia replied. "You're not."

Fight now over and forgotten, Zola and Sofia caught up to Lexie and flanked her on either side.

"Lexie," Sofia said, remembering her earlier question, "Do you have to only give boy babies blue stuff?"

"Of course not," Lexie replied. "Everybody can have whatever color things they want, even as babies. Whether they're boys or girls doesn't matter. Colors are just colors." Sofia smiled. It looked like her mothers were safe from the baby-color police. "Hey, Sofia, great drawing!" Lexie commented, noticing Sofia's self-portrait. "It looks just like you!"

When Lexie turned away, Sofia leaned around her and stuck her tongue out at Zola. Zola wasted no time in sticking hers right back.

* * *

><p><em>June 9, 2016<em>

"Ow! Ow! Arizona, would you – ow!" Callie tried unsuccessfully to pry Arizona's fingers off of her hand. "Breaking bones is _my_ job. _Ow_!"

"Oh, Callie, I'm so sorry," Arizona growled through gritted teeth. "Am I hurting you? Am I causing you pain? Are you –" she grunted in pain "—uncomfortable? Please, forgive me. I'm just a little preoccupied. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm trying to _have a baby_!" Callie wasn't sure whether to laugh or be terrified.

Before she could say anything she might regret later, April's head popped into the room. "Dr. Whitman just called to say he'll be here in about fifteen minutes. Do you need anything in the meantime?"

"Make it stop!" Arizona wailed. "Give me drugs or an epidural or-or just reach in and grab it and take it out!"

"I-uh-I'm-I don't think I can do that," April stammered. "Let-let me get a nurse to give you some more pain meds." Wide-eyed, she turned on her heel and made to dash out of the room.

"Can you check on Sofia?" Callie called after her. "Tell her everything's fine and I'll be out to check on her myself as soon as I can."

"No problem, Dr. Torres!" April was already halfway to the waiting room. She loved working in OB, she really did. It was just the women in labor that she found truly frightening. So far, Arizona was one of the better ones.

Contraction over for the time being, Arizona flopped back on the bed and relaxed her grip on Callie's hand. "Sorry," she murmured.

Callie flexed her fingers. "That's all right," she said. "But can you squeeze my other hand next time? This is my scalpel hand."

* * *

><p>"What are they doing?" Sofia asked for what felt like the thousandth time. She'd been swimming at the community pool with Mark, Derek, and Zola when Mark had gotten the call that Arizona had gone into labor. Zola was happy to keep swimming, but Sofia's concern for her mommy overshadowed the fun she'd been having. She and Mark had rushed to the hospital; Sofia still wore her bathing suit top.<p>

Now, Arizona's parents were on their way, Callie's father and sister had been called, godmother Teddy was still in surgery, Dr. Whitman was en route, and there was nothing to do but wait.

"Your mommy is having the baby," Mark explained patiently, also for the thousandth time. "Your mama is in there with her. Having a baby hurts."

"I can make her feel better," Sofia said. "Can I go see her?"

"Not yet," Mark replied. "Maybe later." While Sofia was technically allowed in Arizona's room, all three of her parents unanimously agreed that her seeing Arizona screaming in pain wouldn't be good for anybody.

"When will the baby come out?" she asked.

"We aren't really sure yet. Sometimes babies take a long time. It'll come out when it's ready."

Sofia studied Mark's face for a hint of any more information. Finding none, she asked, "Did I take a long time?"

Mark shifted uncomfortably. Even five years later, he really preferred not to think about the day Sofia was born. "Not, um, not really."

"Oh." Sofia shifted in the uncomfortable waiting room chair. So far, this exciting moment was turning out to be a big disappointment.

"Hey, guys." Callie stepped out into the waiting room.

"Mama!" Sofia hopped out of the chair and ran to Callie. "Is Mommy okay? Did she have the baby yet? Can she come home? I want her to come home. Why does she have to stay here?'

"Whoa," Callie laughed, crouching down to Sofia's level. Sofia immediately got as close to Callie as she could, all but climbing into her lap. "Mommy's fine. She's resting right now, but she's still working on having the baby. I'll let you know when it's here, okay?"

Sofia rested her head on Callie's chest. "Okay."

"How's she doing?" Mark asked.

"Well, she's –"

"What happened? Did I miss it? I missed it, didn't I?" Teddy came barreling into the waiting room and tripped over a chair, just barely avoiding somersaulting over it. Sofia giggled despite her anxiety.

"Relax," Callie laughed. "You didn't miss anything. Well, not unless you really wanted to see Arizona break my hand." Teddy heaved a sigh of relief. "I just came out here to say that Dr. Whitman just got here and he thinks it'll be another three or four hours."

"Can I see her?" Sofia asked Callie.

"She's resting right now, honey," Callie reminded her. "Maybe later, okay?"

"No, Mama, I'm scared," Sofia whimpered. "I want to see Mommy. I want to stay with you."

"Sofia, baby, there's nothing to be scared of. Mommy's just tired right now, that's all. She isn't sick. It's just hard work having a baby." Callie smoothed Sofia's hair, unruly from swimming and air-drying, away from her face. "Tell you what. Why don't you go home with Daddy for a while? Wash your hair, put on some real clothes, get something to eat. I'll let you know if anything happens."

"But –"

"Sofia," Teddy cut in. "Trust me, there's nothing happening right now you'd want to see. Just a bunch of grown-ups sitting around drinking stale coffee while your mommy gets mad because she's not allowed to have any."

Sofia sighed. That did sound pretty boring. "Okay." She turned to Mark, who had stood up. "Can I have a piggyback ride?"

Mark chuckled. "I think I can manage that."

* * *

><p>"How's Sofia?" Arizona asked when Callie came back into her room, followed closely by Teddy.<p>

"She's fine. Worried about you, but fine. I sent her home with Mark for a while. I figured we could be here a long time. No sense in her sitting out there worrying when she's too young to smoke cigars."

"How are _you_?" Teddy asked. "How far apart are your contractions?"

Arizona grimaced as though the word alone was painful. "Far enough apart that I forget how painful they are in between, but close enough together that I'm surprised my body hasn't actually exploded yet."

Teddy laughed and patted Arizona's knee. "That's the spirit."

"Hey, where's Kepner? I haven't seen her since she ran off to find that nurse who never showed up."

"Um, sweetie," Callie said, "I think you scared her. It isn't every day she gets threatened with a pair of forceps."

* * *

><p>Miranda Bailey surveyed the waiting room. Lexie, Meredith, Cristina, Owen, and Alex sat waiting for news of Arizona and the baby. Of course, that was precisely why she was there too, but that didn't mean she couldn't have a little fun while she waited. "Do you people seriously have nothing better to do?"<p>

"No traumas," Owen said.

Meredith looked at Lexie, who admittedly looked a little lost without Mark or Sofia nearby. "I'm her moral support."

Cristina nodded and glanced at Meredith. "And I'm hers."

Alex rubbed the back of his neck, eyes darting nervously. "Oh, uh, I was just on my way to the, uh, I mean I'm not really…hey, what time is it?"

Bailey snorted. "Relax, Karev. Why do you think I'm here? Now, we may be waiting a long time. I brought some charts to review. Who wants first pick?"

* * *

><p>Exhausted from an afternoon of swimming and worrying, Sofia had fallen asleep not long after she'd taken a bath and changed her clothes. She snored softly on the couch while <em>Aladdin<em> played on the television. Mark was about to turn it off when his phone rang.

"Sofia!" Mark had trouble not shouting with excitement once he'd hung up. "Sofia, wake up!" He shook the little girl's shoulder.

"Don't wanna," Sofia murmured, sounding remarkably like Callie.

"Sofia!" Mark was more insistent. "Your mommy's having the baby! Let's go!"

Instantly awake, Sofia catapulted off the couch and ran for the door. "Daddy, quick!" she cried. "We have to hurry!"

"That's what I'm saying! Put your shoes on and let's run!"

* * *

><p>"Okay, Arizona, push," Dr. Whitman coached. "Push. That's it. You're doing great."<p>

"Did someone call Mark?" Arizona cried. "He and Sofia need to be here!"

"They're on their way," Teddy reassured. "I just called them so they'll be here any minute. Ow, not so hard! You're wearing a ring!"

Callie stood on Arizona's other side, her left hand this time caught in a vice grip. "Arizona, you're amazing. You're doing _awesome_. I love you so much."

"Shut up!" Arizona screamed. "Where are my parents? I never thought I'd say this, but God, I want my mom!"

"They're on their way," Callie said, seemingly unfazed by Arizona's outburst. "They'll be here in a few hours. You just need to concentrate on pushing, okay?"

"I can't!" Arizona cried. "It hurts! God, why is this baby doing this to me? I'm too tired! Can't I finish later?"

Callie and Teddy exchanged a look.

"I'm pretty sure that's not how it works," Teddy said. "Now hurry up and push, because I have surgery in an hour and a half and I want to meet my godchild!"

"I see a head!" Dr. Whitman called. "Come on, Arizona, one more big push!"

"Oh my god, I see it!" Callie bounced on the balls of her feet. "Arizona, you're doing it! It's –"

"It's a girl!" Teddy ran into the waiting room, huge grin on her face. "It's a girl! Six pounds, twelve ounces, perfectly healthy, and platinum-blonde hair. It's a girl!"

The waiting room broke out into cheers and applause.

"Mark, you have another daughter," Lexie said in awe. "And Sofia, you have a sister!"

A sister. Sofia sat still and let the words sink in. A sister meant another girl in the house, a younger, cuter version of herself. What would her place be now? What would make her special? What if her mothers decided two girls were too many and sent Sofia away to live with Mark or Cristina or April or –

"Sofia?" Teddy interrupted her internal panic. "Come with me, honey. Your sister can't want to meet you."

Sofia blinked back frightened tears as she grasped Teddy's proffered hand and followed her out of the room.

"There's my sweet pea!" Arizona called as soon as she saw Sofia in the doorway. "Come here. I missed you!"

"Mommy?" Sofia whispered, stepping cautiously into the room. She was no stranger to the hospital, but as far as she knew, the beds in it were for sick people, and seeing Arizona in one was disconcerting.

"It's okay, sweetie," Arizona promised. "Come give me a hug. You won't hurt me."

Stepping lightly, Sofia walked the rest of the way into the room and hesitated at Arizona's bedside. "Are you sick, Mommy?" she asked. "Can you come home? I want you to come home with me."

Arizona patted the space beside her in the bed. Sofia hesitated again before finally climbing up beside Arizona and curling into her side.

"I'm not sick, Sofia," Arizona promised. "My body is just very tired from working so hard to have a baby, so I'm going to stay here tonight and rest. The baby has to stay here tonight too, so I need to stay with her and feed her."

"Oh." Sofia tried not to sound too dejected.

"Hey, Sofia, look at me," Arizona said gently. Sofia lifted her head. "Remember how I said some things would be kind of weird for a little while after the baby came?" Sofia nodded. "This is one of those things. But I still love you, sweetie, _so_ much. I won't even have to miss you too much because I have your _awesome_ picture here to keep me company. It's almost like you're here with me! And when I do come home, I'll still be pretty tired, so I'll be resting a lot in bed. Do you know what that means?"

"What?"

"Well, it means I'm going to need someone to cuddle with me. Do you know anybody who might be able to do that?"

"I can do it, Mommy!" Sofia cried. "I'm a awesome cuddler!"

"You are?" Arizona gasped. "What are the chances? How did I get so lucky?" Sofia giggled. For the time being, at least, her mind was at ease about the whole baby situation.

Callie, who had been quietly holding the baby up until this point, finally spoke. "So, Sofia," she said. "Someone here really wants to meet you."

Sofia peered over Arizona to look at the tiny bundle in her mama's arms. "Is that the baby?"

Callie nodded. "This is her. This is your sister. Come over here and get a better look."

Sofia allowed her curiosity to get the better of her and got off the bed, walking over to Callie. "She looks weird," she observed, taking in the baby's pink face, round cheeks, toothless mouth, and eyes squeezed shut. "She doesn't look like a sister." She wrinkled her nose. "Why's her eyes closed?"

"Her eyes _are_ closed," Callie said, "because she's sleepy. Babies sleep _a lot_."

"That's boring." Sofia studied the baby a little longer. "She's so little."

The baby's eyes blinked open and focused on Sofia's as her tiny hand extended and grazed Sofia's face.

"Say hello to your big sister, baby girl," Callie cooed to the baby. "That's her right there."

"She recognizes you," Arizona said from the bed. "She knows you're super important." Sofia smiled, admittedly awestruck.

Teddy cleared her throat from the doorway. She'd been silent, watching the sweet scene before her, the performers of which had forgotten she was there. "So, not to rush the bonding experience, but I have to go scrub in in about half an hour and I'd really like to brag to everyone about what my goddaughter's name is."

"She doesn't have a name?" Sofia asked incredulously, picturing Zola's disapproving face in her head.

"No, we were waiting for you," Callie explained. "It's up to you and Teddy. We have final vetoing power, of course," Callie directed that part at Teddy. "And then once you pick, we'll get Daddy and he'll help choose the other middle name."

"Who choosed my name?" Sofia asked.

"There were a bunch we liked, so we wrote them all down on slips of paper and picked one out of a hat," Arizona said. "You could've been Vanessa or Natalia or Magdalena or Teresa."

"I like Sofia."

Arizona smiled. "Good thing we picked it, then."

"Come on," Teddy said. "Get over here and help me choose. I have to go soon." The two retreated the far corner of the room and began whispering. "I've always liked the name Mathilde," Teddy began. "Or Veronica."

Sofia wrinkled her nose. "Ew, no. What about Briar Rose?"

Teddy laughed. "I'm not sure if Briar Rose is the best name for a baby," she said. "But good thinking with a Disney name. Your mommy will definitely like that."

Sofia immediately began rattling off names of Disney leading ladies. "Megara, Giselle, Eilonwy, Maid Marian, Ariel, Mulan…"

"Jane?" Teddy supplied. "Wendy?"

Sofia shook her head. "…Tinkerbell, Nala, Duchess, Snow White, Tiana, Perdita…" She remembered she'd been watching _Aladdin_ earlier in the day. "Jasmine…"

"Ooh," Teddy said. "Jasmine. I like that. Jasmine was always my favorite flower." Teddy rolled the name around in her mouth. "Jasmine, put that down. Jasmine, would you please pass the potatoes? And now, graduating at the top of her class from Johns Hopkins University…Jasmine!" She nodded. "Yep. I like it."

"Mama! Mommy!" Sofia whirled around and grinned at her mothers' expectant faces. "We choosed a name!"

"Well?" Callie hedged. "Are you going to tell us, or…?"

"Jasmine," Sofia and Teddy said at the same time.

"Jasmine," Callie mused, tasting the name for the first time.

"Jasmine," Arizona echoed. "Hmm, it's nice. It's like…Disney, but not _too_ Disney, and then also flowery."

"That's exactly what we were thinking," Teddy said, slinging an arm around Sofia's shoulders. "That's good teamwork, Sofia. High five." She held her hand up for Sofia to slap, which she did. "Okay. Now I really have to go. Bye, everyone. Congratulations!"

Sofia tiptoed back over to the bundle in Callie's arms. "Hi, Jasmine," she said as Jasmine opened her eyes once again and gazed at Sofia's face. "Hi. I'm your big sister."

* * *

><p><em>August 2016 (present day)<em>

Sofia had learned a lot about babies in two months.

Since Jasmine – full name Jasmine Emilia Robbin Sloan Torres – had come home, Sofia learned that babies were loud. They spent about sixty percent of the day asleep, but when they weren't asleep, they made a _lot_ of noise. They cried in the middle of the night, sometimes because they were hungry, but more often than not for reasons Sofia couldn't pin down. Sometimes it seemed like Jasmine cried simply to remind the rest of the family that she was still there. She'd learned that babies were messy. They drooled almost constantly and were always getting everything all slimy. She'd learned that babies came in two fragrance varieties: sweet and powder-fresh, and noxious, and she'd learned that she had pretty much no tolerance for noxious. Babies, it also seemed, required a lot of time and energy, despite the amount of time they spent sleeping and drooling. Sofia often caught Callie or Arizona asleep at odd hours of the day, catching naps while Jasmine was asleep since nobody ever slept through the night anymore. Someone's lap was always occupied. And when Sofia spent the night with her father and Lexie, the baby came too. She was _everywhere_. Even in her own room, Sofia couldn't escape from the sounds of Jasmine crying or one of her mothers cooing to her. And since Mark's apartment was even smaller, everybody could hear everything. For now, Jasmine slept in a small crib in Mark and Lexie's bedroom, but Sofia had heard talk of them moving to a larger place so the two girls wouldn't have to share a room when Jasmine got older.

Arizona's maternity leave was up the first week of August, and with only one parent home at a time again, it was all Jasmine all the time. Callie and Arizona always made sure to devote some attention to Sofia – they watched movies together, they read books, and when Callie or Arizona crashed at two o'clock in the afternoon, Sofia was usually there, happy to cuddle up and listen to Mama or Mommy's soft breathing while she slept. But still, Jasmine was always there, the shadow that fell over everyone and everything. And Sofia was getting sick of it.

So, when what had started as a Sofia-and-Mama viewing of _Up_ turned into the movie paused, Mama trying to get a cranky Jasmine to stop crying, and Sofia watching from the sidelines, Sofia felt her wits about to snap. And when Callie suggested that she go play in her room if the crying was bothering her, Sofia wanted to scream. This was _her_ time with Mama. And besides, even if she did go to her room, she'd still be able to hear the crying.

Maybe she should just throw in the towel and go live with Cristina and Owen after all.

Sighing heavily, Sofia slid off the couch and headed toward her room. Packing wouldn't be too hard. She'd just need her toothbrush, some underwear, a change of clothes, Barky, and –

"Sofia, wait." Despite herself, Sofia turned around when she heard Callie's voice. "Come here. I have an idea." Reluctantly, Sofia walked back over to the couch. "Why don't you try singing to her? Babies like music."

"Why don't you do it?"

"Trust me," Callie said. "My singing won't make anybody cry any less. You're the singer in the family. Go ahead. It can't hurt to try."

Sofia's conscience waged a battle inside her. On the one hand, she could just leave, go live with Cristina and Owen, and be done with the baby's crying forever. On the other hand, she didn't really _want_ to run away. She couldn't live without her mothers, even if her new sister did drive her crazy. And when Jasmine wasn't crying or drooling or smelling noxious, she _was_ pretty cute. She hated the thought of her crying endlessly because she was sad. Sofia liked to make people feel better when they were sad. If she could make both Jasmine and her mama feel better in this moment, she had to try.

Getting as close to the howling baby as she dared, Sofia peered down at her red, twisted face, wet with her tears. "Don't cry, Jasmine," she said softly. "It's okay. _Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb_…" At the sound of Sofia's singing, which really was impressive for a five-year-old, both in pitch and in tone, Jasmine quieted slightly and fixed her eyes on her sister. "_Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow_." Jasmine's cries reduced to whimpers.

"Oh my god, it's working," Callie whispered. "Sing something else."

Sofia chanced a bright-eyed smile at Callie, who smiled back. "Uh…_Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are_." Callie couldn't stop herself from giggling softly as laughter bubbled up in her chest. Her five-year-old was totally the best. Somehow she had inherited Arizona's child-whisperer superhero abilities, _and_ she had obvious musical talent. Callie rocked Jasmine gently as Sofia continued singing. "_Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky…twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are_."

"One more," Callie whispered as she noticed the baby slowly succumbing to sleep, even as she fought to stay awake and listen to her sister sing to her.

Sofia grinned widely. Maybe being a big sister wasn't so bad. Now that she wasn't screaming, she could see that Jasmine was a sweet, cute baby who looked a little like her mommy. If Sofia looked at her long enough, she realized, she could actually start to like her a little bit. Maybe she'd even love her someday. And when she caught Callie's eye again, Sofia also knew that she was sharing this moment with her mama, and Mama was _super_ proud of her. That was a feeling she never got tired of.

Nah, she wouldn't run away to live with Cristina and Owen. She liked it here way too much.

"_Row, row, row your boat_," Sofia sang. Jasmine's breathing began to even out as her eyelids drooped. "_Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a…_" Jasmine's eyes fluttered closed and stayed shut. Sofia felt Callie's free hand squeezing her shoulder, but she didn't move her eyes from Jasmine's serene little face. "_Dream_."


	7. Make New Friends, Keep the Old: Sep 2017

I am so, so sorry about the ridiculous amount of time it's taken me to get this written and posted! As fair warning, though, I just started a new graduate program, in creative writing, last month, so at the end of most days I'm like "BRAIN NO CAN MAKE MOAR WORDZ." Not to give too much away, but the events in this part of the story coincided almost uncannily with my own life. I just wish I had Arizona to speechify me and make me feel better about stuff! However, I have Jess/Hylen, my awesome, incredibly fast beta and amazing, wonderful girlfriend whom I love a whole, whole lot. :) Thank you so much, dahling! 3

* * *

><p>"What color should we put on next, Sof?" Callie reached for the pile of blocks beside her.<p>

"Hmm." Sofia leaned back and studied the creation the two of them had spent the better part of the afternoon working on – something between a tower and a castle. "Green next. Then blue."

Callie nodded, handing Sofia the green block. "Good choice. Nice artistic vision." She glanced at the block pile. "Blue square or blue triangle?"

Sofia racked her brain, trying to sort out which was a square and which was a triangle. She'd gotten much better with her shapes, but sometimes it took her a moment to remember. "Blue triangle."

The summer was winding down, and in just a few days, Sofia would be starting kindergarten. She hadn't started when she was five, as was the general expectation. Callie and Arizona had decided – and Mark had agreed, though he hadn't been left a whole lot of room for argument – that she simply wasn't ready. Developmentally and socially, she'd still been that little bit behind. Her parents had accepted and embraced the reality that she likely always would be, and they loved her and celebrated her unconditionally. She was happy and completely healthy, and that was all that really mattered. They all unanimously agreed that however she developed, that would be perfect for her.

Physically, she was significantly smaller than other five-year-olds. They'd all agreed it would be better for her to wait a year. While she'd be older than the rest of her class, she'd be more caught up with them than she would have been if she'd started school when she was "supposed to."

Then, of course, Arizona had had a baby just a few months before September last year, and everyone was still adjusting to that, not to mention sleep-deprived and stressed. Nobody in the family was quite ready for another big change like going to school for the first time.

Out of everyone, Arizona seemed to be the most excited. The eager student in her still got a rush of excitement at the beginning of a new school year, and now that her child was going to be involved, it was even better. In her more wicked moments, Callie liked to joke that maybe Arizona was the one who should go to kindergarten. Arizona had been the one to take Sofia school shopping. It wasn't like kindergarteners needed many school supplies, but still, they'd come home with a new lunch box, new crayons, and some new clothes. While Sofia was happy to have new crayons, and while any excuse to spend extra time with Mommy was a good one in her book, she hadn't entirely grasped the concept of _why_ they'd been shopping for this stuff. Arizona, on the other hand, had all but bounced in her shoes when they'd come home and showed their purchases to Callie and a babbling Jasmine.

While her parents had been warming her up to the idea of school for weeks now, Sofia was still caught up in exactly none of the excitement. She was familiar with the concept of school, given that Zola had been going for two years now, but she'd always figured it was something other people did – a special activity in which Zola participated, like the way her friend Caitlin from daycare went to dance class. Now that it was something _she _was going to do, Sofia was less than enthused. Why did things have to change? Why couldn't she keep going to daycare like always? As far as she knew, the current arrangement worked fine. She went to daycare when her parents were working, and if one of them wasn't working, she and Jasmine usually went with them.

For his part, Mark was mostly indifferent, although he always made sure to hype school up in Sofia's presence. He wasn't genuinely giddy about it the way Arizona was, but when he talked about school to Sofia, he only ever had good things to say about it. Lexie had revealed to Arizona, however, that he was secretly freaking out: "She's still too young! What if all the other kids are bigger than her? What if she gets a bad teacher? What if she doesn't catch up? What if she can't learn her numbers? What if she gets hurt on the playground? She's not ready!" By this point, Lexie had mostly talked him down and convinced him that it was, in fact, a good idea for Sofia to go to kindergarten before she was thirteen, but he still had his moments.

Callie wasn't quite that bad, but she certainly didn't love the idea of hauling her daughter off to a room full of people she didn't know. She knew Sofia didn't like being separated from her parents for long periods of time. There were days she'd had to stay in daycare for longer than six hours, but even then, at least one of her parents usually managed to pop in for a visit. Callie had to admit that she didn't particularly enjoy being separated from Sofia for a long time, either. She knew that school had to happen, but all of her general anxieties about Sofia's wellbeing, coupled with the fact that she was six already – seriously, when had that happened? – made her emotional about the whole affair.

Recently, Callie had been determined to milk every moment with Sofia to its full potential – not that she'd been lazy about spending time with her before, but she'd been particularly conscientious these past few months. And so, that was why she found herself creating a block masterpiece with Sofia on their living room floor three days before school was due to start. One-year-old Jasmine watched from her place across the room, strapped into her bouncy chair.

"You know what this castle needs?" Callie asked.

"A princess!" Sofia answered, grinning.

"I was going to say a drawbridge, but sure, a princess would work too."

Sofia dashed to her bedroom and returned seconds later with the one Barbie doll she owned. "Here!" She thrust the doll at Callie. "You put her in the castle." Carefully, Callie placed Barbie in one of the chambers they'd created.

"There. Does someone need to come rescue her? Is there a dragon about to eat her or something?"

Sofia shook her head. "No, Mama. This is where she lives! The dragon is her pet!"

"Oh." Callie was pleased that her daughter hadn't bought into all of the princess stereotypes. "We still have some blocks left. Think we can make a drawbridge?"

"Okay." The pair worked in silence for a few minutes, arranging the blocks to make a good approximation of a bridge. "Mama?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you wanna be my best friend?"

Callie's eyes widened as she gripped tightly to the block she was holding, determined not to drop it in surprise. She'd be lying to herself if she said she hadn't spent the better part of the last six years waiting for a moment like this. "Your best friend? Really?"

Sofia nodded. "Yeah. Want to?"

_Be diplomatic, be diplomatic,_ Callie's brain shouted at her. "Wh-what about Mommy? And Daddy?"

Sofia shrugged. "Mommy's my other best friend. Daddy's my friend too, but he can't be my _best_ friend 'cause he's a boy." She explained that last part as if it were the most obvious fact in the world.

"Well, I…do you think Zola will mind?"

"Zola's not my best friend," Sofia said, just a little bit sadly. "Her best friend is Stephanie. And Zola's kind of bossy."

"Well," Callie said, trying not to grin _too_ widely, "then I would be honored to be your best friend, Sofia. As long as Mommy can be my other best friend too. And Daddy. And Jasmine, if she ever asks."

Sofia nodded. "Okay." She sat back and admired the tower-castle, princess and all. "It's done."

"Wait a second." Callie placed the red triangular block she'd been holding on top of the bridge. "_Now_ it's done." She turned and smiled at Sofia. "Nice work." She nudged the little girl with her shoulder before sliding an arm around her. "Best friend."

Sofia leaned into Callie's side. "I love you, best friend."

"_Te amo, mi cari__ñ__a_." Callie leaned down and kissed the top of Sofia's head.

From across the room, Jasmine gurgled happily and clapped her hands. She always loved block towers.

* * *

><p>She'd read it a million times, but Arizona never got tired of <em>To Kill a Mockingbird<em>. She read other books too, of course, but this was always her fallback. Callie was working late tonight, so Arizona opted to sprawl out on the couch and wait for her. _To Kill a Mockingbird _was excellent company.

She glanced up from Scout Finch's description of Boo Radley when she heard quiet, hesitant footsteps approaching. "Sofia?" The little girl stood a few feet from the couch rubbing her eyes, her hair slightly mussed. "I thought you were asleep, sweetie. What are you doing up?"

"Mommy," Sofia whimpered, treading a little closer. "I can't sleep." She crossed the rest of the way to the couch, climbing up when Arizona sat up and patted the space beside her. Sofia immediately burrowed in.

"What's wrong?" Arizona asked, stroking Sofia's hair, although she had an idea of what the problem might be.

"I don't want to go to school," Sofia sniffled. "Why do I have to go? I don't want to!" Arizona felt Sofia's body shake slightly as she started to cry.

Arizona sighed. All along, she'd known this moment was coming. It was only a question of when, and who would be on the other end of Sofia's frustrations. Now, school started tomorrow, and Arizona was the lucky winner. She moved her hand from Sofia's hair to her back and rubbed soft, slow circles. "I know it feels kind of scary, Sofia, but school's great. You're going to learn so much! Reading, writing, math, science…don't you want to get super smart and teach Jasmine everything you learn?"

Sofia shook her head vigorously against Arizona's ribcage. "No! I want to stay with you and Mama!"

"We both have to work tomorrow, sweetie."

"Well, then I want to go to daycare like usual!"

"Sofia," Arizona said, "you're six years old. You're a big girl now. And big kids go to school. Zola goes to school. Mama, Daddy, and I all went to school when we were kids. And when Jasmine gets a little older, she'll go, too."

"But I don't want to!" Sofia protested. "Please, just let me stay here. I-I'll help take care of Jasmine!" Arizona opened her mouth to speak, but Sofia jumped in again before she could. She was getting really worked up now. "I'll be good! I promise, I'll be _so_ good, and I'll be really, really quiet. I'll sit in a chair all day and I won't say anything. I'll be perfect, Mommy! Just…please, _please!_" Sofia's voice broke and she began to sob loudly.

"Baby," Arizona whispered. "Baby girl." For once, Sofia didn't protest being called "baby," a true testament to how upset she was. As excited as she was for Sofia to start school, Arizona felt a heavy weight in her chest. It broke her heart to see her little girl this distressed and scared. "Sofia, it's okay. It's going to be okay." She gathered the little girl into her lap. Sofia clung to Arizona as she cried. Arizona didn't speak again until the cries quieted somewhat. "Sofia, sweetie, listen to me, okay?" She felt Sofia nod against her and heard her try to control her cries. "_All _kids go to school. Those are the rules. I didn't make them up. But sweetie, it isn't just you, okay? We're not making you go to school because you've been bad or because we don't want you around. You need to go so you can learn all kinds of important things like how to read and do math. Did you know I had to go to school to learn how to be a doctor?"

"You-you did?"

"I did. So did Mama and Daddy and Lexie and Cristina and everyone else. School's _really_ important. But it's also really fun! And kindergarten is the best. You'll learn how to read and do math, but you'll also get to play and color and make lots of new friends."

Sofia considered this for a moment, but then she whimpered into Arizona's chest. Arizona had a feeling that at this point, her attempts to convince Sofia that school was awesome would fall on deaf ears. She figured it would probably sink in eventually. Exactly when that would happen was anyone's guess, but she had a good feeling that it would. "Shh," Arizona soothed, rubbing Sofia's back again. "Tell me what's scaring you, baby. What's scary about school?"

"Just…" Sofia tried and failed to articulate her apprehension. "I don't know."

"Let me tell you what exactly is going to happen tomorrow," Arizona suggested. She had a feeling that not knowing the details of what was going to go down was a big part of Sofia's anxiety. "I have to go to work in the morning, so at eight o'clock I'm going to give you a big hug and kiss goodbye and I'm going to take Jasmine to daycare and then go to work."

"Then what?"

"Then you and Mama are going to have breakfast, and afterward, she's going to take you to school. She'll walk to your class and meet your teacher with you, and then she'll give you another big hug and kiss goodbye. Then she's going to go to work with me. Daddy will be there, too."

"Okay." Sofia wasn't thrilled with the idea of Callie taking her to a strange place and leaving her there, but she had to admit that having a better idea of how the day was going to work helped a little.

"Then you're going to have an _awesome_ first day of school, and you're going to learn and play and make lots of new friends, and at three o'clock, Mama will come back to pick you up and take you home. She might have Jasmine with her, but that I don't know yet."

"Okay."

"I have to work for kind of a long time tomorrow, so I won't be home until after dinner, but I will be home before you go to bed, so you'll get to tell me all about what you did at school and all the new things you learned. I can't wait to hear about it."

Despite still being extremely nervous, the desperate anxiety was fading with Arizona's soft, detailed descriptions. Sofia finally allowed herself to give in to her tiredness – it was over an hour past her bedtime, after all – and all she had to say at this point was, "Oh."

"I know it's scary to do new things for the first time," Arizona said. "But I _know_ you can do it."

"Mmkay."

Arizona chuckled. "My sleepy sweet pea. Should we try going back to bed?"

"Mmhmm." Sofia cuddled closer to Arizona. "Tuck me in again, Mommy?" she slurred.

"Absolutely." Arizona knew there was no way Sofia was going to get up and walk back upstairs to bed in her current state. This was one of those times that she was secretly glad her daughter was smaller than the average six-year-old. As she scooped Sofia into her arms and headed for the stairs, she felt the little girl's head droop against her shoulder and her arm fall limply to the side.

"Mommy?"

Arizona jumped slightly; she was sure Sofia had fallen asleep and was not expecting her to speak again. "Hmm?"

"'M I gonna be smarter than Zola?"

Arizona bit back a loud laugh. "Sofia, go to sleep, sweetie."

* * *

><p>Sofia hadn't let go of Callie's hand all morning. There was, of course, the brief stretch of time in the car while Callie was driving, but even then, the traffic had been light and for a few minutes she'd been able to extend one hand into the backseat for Sofia to hold. Now, as they walked toward the school (a major feat in itself, given that for over five minutes Sofia had refused to get out of the car), Sofia gripped Callie's hand so tightly it was bordering on painful. The girl was strong when she wanted to be.<p>

Sofia looked every bit the part of a new kindergartener: she was dressed in her favorite purple pants, pink flowered shirt, and shiny new black patent-leather Mary Janes. Her hair was freshly brushed and fell in a loose wave over her shoulders, and the whole ensemble was completed with her Hello Kitty backpack and new blue paisley-patterned lunchbox. In the backpack was a picture book and a box of crayons, which Sofia had packed the night before, and a pocket-sized stuffed bunny, which Callie had slipped in there before they'd left the house that morning and had yet to mention to Sofia.

"I think this is it, Sofia," Callie said when the pair reached the end of the hallway they'd been walking. "Looks like a kindergarten classroom to me. What do you think?"

Sofia whimpered and gripped Callie's leg with the hand not clutching her lunchbox.

"Sofia, look," Callie said, trying her best to sound enthusiastic despite Sofia's upset and her own emotionality at the situation. "Everyone has a cubby to put things in. Should we find yours?" Sofia shook her head against Callie's knee. "Look, I think I found it!" Callie powered through anyway. "Here's your name. Can you double-check for me, though?" Sofia glanced away from Callie's leg long enough to recognize her name – she didn't really know her letters, but she knew what her name looked like – make a non-verbal noise of acknowledgment, and return her head to where it had been resting. "Well, here," Callie offered. "Let's put your backpack and lunchbox away. You don't need them right now." Wordlessly, Sofia allowed Callie to slip the backpack from her shoulders and the lunchbox from her hand and stow them away in the cubby.

"Hi!" A smiling woman whose cheerful demeanor rivaled Arizona's approached the pair. "You must be one of my new students. I'm Ms. Haramoto." Ms. Haramoto extended a hand in Sofia's direction, which Sofia didn't acknowledge. Callie took the proffered hand instead, smiling sheepishly. "What's your name?" Ms. Haramoto asked, kneeling to Sofia's level. Sofia didn't say anything.

"This is your teacher," Callie whispered. "Tell her your name, baby."

"So-Sofia," she mumbled into Callie's knee.

"What a pretty name!" Ms. Haramoto exclaimed. "It looks like you found your cubby. Are you excited to start kindergarten?" Again, Sofia didn't acknowledge the woman.

"Sorry," Callie said. "She's a little nervous."

"Oh, don't be sorry!" Ms. Haramoto replied, getting to her feet. "Trust me, it's totally normal. Frankly, I'd be a little worried if she wasn't nervous."

Callie smiled weakly. "I'm Callie Torres, by the way," she said, extending her hand again. "I'm…one of Sofia's mothers. I'll be picking her up this afternoon, but for future reference, here's a list of people who are allowed to pick her up. We have a…kind of unique arrangement." Callie handed Ms. Haramoto a piece of paper, detailing who Sofia's parents were, and the list of names – essentially all of the surgical staff at Seattle Grace-Mercy West, along with Teddy's husband Henry.

Ms. Haramoto chuckled. "Don't worry, I've seen pretty much everything." Callie laughed. "You're a little early, so why don't you two take a moment to say goodbye, and then if you're done before nine, Sofia can play wherever she wants. Otherwise we'll be in our circle on the rug." The teacher pointed toward a colorful rug in the middle of the classroom.

As Ms. Haramoto walked away, Callie pried Sofia off of her leg and knelt down in front of her. "Okay, Sofia, I have to go to work, so –"

"No!" Sofia flung her arms around Callie's neck and pressed her face into her chest. "Don't go. _Please_, Mama!"

Callie ran a hand over Sofia's hair, willing herself not to cry until she was a safe distance away from the school. "Baby, I have to. I have to go to work, and you're here at school now."

"No!" Sofia wailed. "Don't leave, don't leave!"

"Sofia, look!" Callie continued playing up her enthusiasm. "Did you see all the awesome stuff they have? They've got blocks and dress-up clothes and an art table…and look, there's a playground right outside the window!" Sofia chanced a peek at the playground. It did look pretty cool, but if she had her choice between this one and the one her parents brought her and Jasmine to, she preferred the latter. "…And did you see all the other kids here?" Callie was saying. "I bet they can't wait to be your friends."

"I don't want you to leave," Sofia whimpered. "I don't want to go to school."

Callie sighed. "Sometimes we have to do things that are scary," she said softly. "But I know you're going to be fine, because you're my big, brave girl, remember?" Sofia whimpered. "You're going to have a _great_ time, I promise. What did Mommy tell you this morning?"

"Be polite, be kind, be myself," Sofia recited through her tears. Arizona claimed to have received similar advice on her own first day of school, although she'd tweaked it a little to make it more appropriate for a child who wasn't the daughter of a Marine.

"You're going to do _amazing_," Callie said, softly but firmly. She squeezed Sofia tightly and kissed her forehead. "I'm going to go now, but I'll be back at three." Even as Sofia tightened her grip around Callie's neck, Callie managed to extricate herself and stood up. "Bye, baby. I love you so much." She started toward the door. As much as Sofia wanted to follow her, she remained rooted to her spot, unable to move as she stood full-on crying. "Oh!" Callie exclaimed, turning around in the doorway. "Be sure to look in your backpack. There's something special in there." Then she turned and walked out the door and down the hallway.

"No!" Sofia sunk to the floor, sobbing loudly. Some of the other kids turned to look at her, but she didn't notice them, and most of them were too caught up in their own-first day jitters to take too much notice. "Come back! Don't leave! Please don't leave, Mama! _Please_!" What kind of best friend left you in a room full of strangers in a place you'd never been?

Callie walked briskly down the hallway, determined not to shed her own tears until she was outside the building. Hearing her child scream and cry desperately for her was physically painful. When she reached the parking lot, she tilted her head up to the sky and allowed her tears to escape and roll down her cheeks. As she climbed into her car and made the short drive to the hospital, her one consistent thought was _Arizona had better be available when I get there_.

* * *

><p>Callie found Arizona at the nurses' station on the pediatrics floor and breathed a sigh of relief that she wasn't in surgery.<p>

"Hey!" Arizona chirped. "You're here. How did it go?"

Callie heaved a sigh. "Terrible. Awful. Traumatic."

"For her or for you?" Arizona smirked just a little bit.

"Both," Callie replied.

"Oh, no," Arizona said, dropping the act. She reached up to rub circles on Callie's shoulder. "Really?"

Callie nodded. "She cried and screamed and begged me not to leave." Arizona gave Callie a look radiating sympathy and compassion. "Then I cried once I was outside. I felt like a monster. Am I a horrible mother to leave her there?" She sighed. "God, my womb hurts."

"Calliope, of _course_ you're not a horrible mother!" Arizona exclaimed. "You walked her to the classroom, you hung out with her for a few minutes, and then you said goodbye. That's what I would have done. You can't stay there with her forever." Callie nodded even as she slumped forward to rest her chin in her hands. "What was her teacher like? Did she seem good? Ooh, or he? Sorry, I shouldn't assume."

"Yeah, she's a she," Callie confirmed. "I don't know. I mean, I only talked saw her for, like, ten minutes, but she seemed great. Young, sweet, enthusiastic. Kind of like a Japanese version of you, actually." Arizona laughed. "Well, Japanese-American." Callie turned and looked up at Arizona, an anxious expression having taken over her face. "Do you really think she'll be okay?"

Arizona smiled and ran the hand that had been on Callie's shoulder in a comforting stroke down the side of her face. "I really, really do."

Callie breathed loudly and was silent for a minute, Arizona continuing her gentle caress. "That was sweet advice you gave her, by the way. I like it."

"Hmm," Arizona chuckled softly. "Thanks."

"How come I've never heard it before?"

"Well, I thought about giving it to you, but then I figured it was too late."

"_Hey_!" Callie turned to fix a mock-glare on Arizona, who was grinning widely, eyes sparkling. Callie bumped her with her hip. "You are evil." Arizona laughed brightly. The mock-glare on Callie's face softened into a grateful smile. "Thank you."

* * *

><p>"Hi." It was free time, and another girl sat down beside Sofia at the art table where she sat coloring, the surprise little bunny from Callie on the table beside her.<p>

"Hi," Sofia said quietly, glancing next to her at the girl, who had soft red hair and a smattering of freckles across her face. Sofia had cried for a while after Callie left. She'd sat in the circle with the rest of the class, sniffling as her tears slowed considerably but never quite stopped. Then they'd read a story, which Sofia tried valiantly to focus on, but all she could think about were all the times her parents read her stories and how much she preferred them.

Sofia went along with the routine of the class – after the story, there was some free time, followed by an activity where the kids divided into small groups (teacher-assigned, of course) and made patterns with different-colored shapes. Then there was some work with the alphabet, which Sofia _kind_ of grasped, but not really. After that had been lunch, then recess, then rest time. Everyone got a little mat to lie down on, at which point Sofia had burst into tears – how was she supposed to sleep without Barky and without one of her parents to tuck her in? Ms. Haramoto assured her that she didn't have to go to sleep, so she'd lain there clutching her little bunny, trying desperately to get her tears back under control. Now that rest time was over, they had some free time again. So, Sofia followed the routine, but she hadn't said much. Even in the small shape group, just herself and two other kids, she had stayed mostly silent. Still, she was polite. She was kind. She couldn't be sure if she was being herself or not, but she knew she wasn't actively being anyone else, so she figured that was good enough. She was going with the flow, but she wasn't really having fun yet.

"I'm Megan," the girl next Sofia said. "What's your name?"

"Sofia," she said, so quietly Megan almost didn't hear her. Sofia remained focused on what she was drawing.

"Are you sad?"

Sofia nodded, blinking back tears once again.

"Why?"

"Because," she said, scrubbing at her paper with a yellow crayon, "I miss my mama. And my mommy." She paused to think for a moment. "And my daddy and my sister."

To her credit, Megan didn't balk at Sofia's foray into her unusual family arrangement. "It's okay, Sofia. Don't be sad. Your mom's gonna pick you up after school, right?" Sofia nodded. "I'm not really scared. My brother went to kindergarten. Mom always came and got him."

"My mama's coming at three," Sofia said, surprising herself by willingly having a conversation with someone she didn't know. "When's that?"

Megan shrugged. "I don't know. That's just when school ends." While Sofia was relieved to know that three o'clock wasn't just some arbitrary time Callie had chosen to come back for her, she was painfully aware that it wasn't three right _now_.

"I wish my mama was here," Sofia whispered.

Megan shrugged again. "What are you drawing?"

_Be yourself._ "Everybody," Sofia replied, nearly done with her picture at this point. "That's me." She pointed to the drawing of the little girl in the center of the picture. "That's my mama and that's my mommy." Two more drawings, vaguely resembling Callie and Arizona, stood to the Sofia's drawing left. "That's my sister. She's a baby." A tiny baby-shaped drawing floated on Sofia's immediate right. "That's my daddy and that's Lexie. She's kind of my mom too, but not really. Her and Daddy live together."

"Cool." Megan inspected the drawing for a moment. "You have a lot of moms."

Sofia nodded. "I know."

"I only have one." Megan sounded slightly disappointed. "But I have two dogs!" Sofia smiled in approval. "I can draw a dog. Want to see?"

"Yeah!" The only thing better than having your own dog was living vicariously through someone else's. _Be polite._ "Uh, please!"

Megan grabbed the closest crayon – bright blue – and started drawing the dog. She paused and looked at Sofia. "Do you want to be my friend?"

Sofia considered the question. Mama and Mommy were her best friends. Daddy was her good friend. Zola was a friend. She figured she had room for another. "Okay." _Be kind_. She grabbed the bunny that still lay beside her on the table. "You, um, you can play with my bunny if you want." She glanced at it. "It's really special, though."

Megan smiled and gently accepted the bunny from Sofia's outstretched hand. "Hey!" she cried happily, seeing it more closely. "I have the same one!"

* * *

><p>"Okay, so now I'll be the princess and you be the dragon!" Megan directed. It was the end of the school day, and the kids were all playing outside on the playground.<p>

"Okay!" Sofia agreed and started running to the other end of the play structure they were both on. "Wait, is it a good dragon or a bad dragon?"

"Be the kind with fire!" Megan called. "You have to chase me and I have to try to get away!"

"Okay!" Sofia chirped, reaching the end of the structure and seeking out Megan among the throng of frolicking kindergarteners. "Ready? One…two…three!" She took off running for Megan, the two of them shrieking and laughing happily.

Callie stood off to the side, out of Sofia's direct line of sight. In front of her, Jasmine blew raspberries in her stroller. Callie beamed, watching Sofia play and enjoy herself with the total abandon of a happy child. Once again, she felt tears creep up behind her eyes, but this time for an entirely different reason. Despite all of her reassurances, she'd had her doubts – Sofia was her baby, after all – but Sofia had really done it, and from the looks of it, she'd done it well.

"Hi there." Ms. Haramoto had spotted Callie and came to stand beside her. "Sofia did wonderfully. I just thought you should know." Callie allowed an ear-splitting grin to take over her face. Not only had Sofia done it, but she'd flourished. She couldn't be prouder. She knew Arizona would have the same reaction when she told her later. Ms. Haramoto knelt down in front of Jasmine's stroller. "And maybe we'll see you here in a few years, huh?" Jasmine giggled and kicked her legs. The teacher stood back up and moved on to one of the other parents. Callie sighed happily.

"Doe!" Jasmine cried out, pointing at the structure as she caught sight of her sister.

"That's right, there's Sofia!" Callie agreed. "I bet you missed her today, huh?"

"Hmm. Doe!" Jasmine kicked her legs again. Callie couldn't help herself. She crept a little closer to the play structure.

Staying quiet, she didn't think Sofia had noticed her until she heard a squeal from somewhere above her. "_Mama_!" Sofia jumped off a low part of the structure with a flying leap and hurtled in Callie's direction. Bracing herself, Callie allowed Sofia to throw herself into her arms.

"Hi, baby!" Callie cried, lifting Sofia up. While the girl was small, Callie figured she still only had another year or so before she couldn't pick Sofia up anymore – whether because she'd get too heavy or would simply stop allowing it she wasn't sure – and she'd better do it as often as possible before that happened. "I'm so glad to see you, baby girl. I _missed_ you!"

"I missed you too, Mama," Sofia said, snuggling into Callie's arms. She glanced down and waved at her sister. "Hi, Jasmine!"

"Doe!"

"So, Sofia," Callie said, "tell me _everything_. Did you have a good day?" She felt Sofia nod against her. "What did you do?"

Sofia shrugged. "Lots of stuff. I played a lot." Callie laughed. "Oh! I made you a picture! It's in my backpack."

"Awesome! I can't wait to see it."

Across the playground, Megan's brother, a rusty-haired third-grader, came to collect her, and the pair headed for their school bus. "Bye, Sofia!" Megan called, waving.

Sofia waved back. "Bye!"

"Who's that?" Callie asked.

"That's Megan. She's my friend. She has two dogs!" Sofia didn't see, but Callie beamed once again. "Don't worry, Mama," Sofia said. "You're still my _best_ friend."

Callie chuckled. "Well, there's a load off my mind." She really was happy to hear it, though – after her excitement a few days ago at hearing Sofia ask her to be her best friend, she was glad it wasn't over so soon. She was also relieved that Sofia hadn't been so traumatized by her departure that morning that she'd held it against her. "So, are you ready to go?" Sofia nodded. "Okay, I'm going to put you down, then. Run and get your stuff, and then we're out of here." Callie placed a kiss to Sofia's cheek before setting her down.

"Did you miss me, Jasmine?" Sofia asked, rejoining her mama and sister, backpack resting squarely on her shoulders and lunchbox in hand. Jasmine gazed almost reverently at Sofia but didn't respond. "Don't be sad, Jazzy. I have to go to kimber- uh, to kinger- uh—"

"Kindergarten," Callie supplied, trying not to laugh.

"I have to go to _kin_-der-gar-ten now, but don't worry. You can still see me every day. And when you get older, you can come too." Sofia trotted around the stroller to Callie's side.

Callie pushed the stroller out of the playground and into the parking lot with one hand, letting Sofia hold the other. "Sofia, I am _so_ proud of you, baby. I knew you could do it." If Sofia was indignant at being called "baby" this time, she let it slide, too happy to be back in her mama's company to be upset about much of anything. "What should we do when we get home? Want to help me make dinner tonight?"

"Yeah!" Sofia cheered, bouncing a little as she walked – a habit she seemed to have picked up from Arizona. "But, Mama?" Sofia suddenly became serious.

"What? What is it?"

"Can I have more hugs first? I really missed you a lot."

For the third (fourth? She'd lost count) time that day, Callie swallowed past the sudden lump in her throat. "You don't even have to ask."

* * *

><p>After buckling both girls into the car and folding up Jasmine's stroller, Callie climbed into the driver's seat. "So, what do you think?" she asked, turning to look at Sofia as she put on her own seatbelt. "Should we come back tomorrow?"<p>

Sofia grinned. "Yeah! And the day after that, too!"

Callie turned back to the steering wheel and smirked. "I'll see what we can do."


	8. Butterflies in My Stomach: April 2018

I just looked at the date when I posted the last installment of this, and I am thoroughly embarrassed. I am so sorry. School completely consumed me. The bad news is that my winter break is almost over, but the good news is that I'm taking a lighter course load this semester, so I hope not to go so long between updates again. This chapter was beta'd by the fantastic strandedinaber over on LJ. Thank you so much! You are awesome! :D

* * *

><p>"Bye, baby! Have a great time!"<p>

"Bye, Mama. I love you!" Sofia gave Callie a quick hug before running off after Megan.

"_¡Te amo más!_"Callie called after her. Sofia was out of sight already, but Callie thought she heard her giggle, and she decided to assume it was in response to her words.

Jasmine, standing next to Callie with one hand on her knee, waved her other hand. "Bye-bye!" she called.

"Thanks again, Laura," Callie said when Megan's mother stepped into the foyer. "Her dad will be here tomorrow at eleven." For as much as Sofia used to hate being separated from her parents, it was impressive to see her now: the girl couldn't get enough of sleepovers with Megan, Zola, and the other friends she'd made between school and daycare. Of course, when she came home, she dove headfirst into cuddles with whichever parent was available, but for someone who'd shown up to her first day of kindergarten literally kicking and screaming, it was quite a transformation.

"Oh, it's no problem," Laura said. "We love Sofia. She's a great kid. Even the dogs love her."

Callie laughed. "That doesn't surprise me. She'd probably bathe in meat sauce if we let her, if it meant the dogs would lick her face all night."

"So," Laura said, looking at Jasmine. "Do you girls have anything exciting planned for tonight?"

Jasmine giggled and smacked Callie's leg.

"Oh, you know." Callie waved her hand noncommittally. "Arizona is working tonight, so I think Jasmine and I have an exciting night of movie watching and puzzle assembly ahead of us." Callie looked down at her almost two-year-old, who was smiling at Laura and babbling away with that replica of Arizona's smile on her face. "What do you think, Jazz Hands? Sound like a good time?" Jasmine responded by laughing and ramming her head against Callie's knee.

Laura laughed. "I think that's a yes."

"I'd say so." Callie hoisted Jasmine onto her hip. "Well, thanks again. You know how to reach me if you need to. You all have fun!"

"Will do," Laura promised as Callie and Jasmine made their way down the front steps.

* * *

><p>"Where does this piece go?" Callie handed a piece of the foamy floor puzzle to Jasmine. When it was done, the puzzle was supposed to make a picture of a circus tent, but with Jasmine's method of puzzle assembly, they had a long way to go.<p>

Sure enough, as soon as Jasmine accepted the puzzle piece, she threw it on the floor in the general direction of what had already been completed. "Zoo!" she cried.

"Not zoo, baby," Callie encouraged. "Circus. See the clown?"

"Zoo!" Jasmine demanded, although Callie wasn't sure if it was just a sound she was making or if she really was insisting that she was looking at a picture of a zoo. "Zoo doo boo moo shoo noo…" Callie laughed. Both of her girls were talkers (well, all three, if you counted Arizona). While Sofia had been on the later side to start talking, once she'd started, she hadn't stopped. And Jasmine? Sometimes it seemed like she just loved the sound of her own voice. She knew a good number of actual words, but she often just babbled for the fun of it, and she seemed to know exactly what she was saying.

"All right, all right, whatever you say," Callie conceded. "How about another piece?"

Jasmine took the puzzle piece and threw it on the floor like usual, but then she stomped her foot. "No!" she screamed as she flung her arm out to smack Callie's shoulder.

"Okay, whoa," Callie said. "Calm down. We don't hit –"

"No!"

"Jasmine –"

"No, no, no!" Jasmine stomped her foot again as she started to cry for seemingly no reason. Callie looked at the clock on the wall. There was her reason: it was after nine. Jasmine had hit her wall and was determined to take everyone down with her.

"Okay, I think it's time for bed," Callie said as she got to her feet. "I know at least one of us is tired." She lifted a shouting Jasmine into her arms and was about to carry her into her bedroom to get her changed when her phone rang on the coffee table. "Hold that thought," she said, and picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Callie, hi. It's Laura Connelly. Listen, I know it's late, and I'm sorry to bother you, but I think you'd better come pick Sofia up."

Callie's heart leapt into her throat as her brain immediately began supplying worst-case scenarios for why she would need to come get her seven-year-old from her sleepover. She'd fallen and hit her head and was unconscious, or she'd had an allergic reaction to something she'd eaten and was in anaphylactic shock, or she'd acted out for some reason and was no longer welcome in the Connelly home, or one of the dogs had attacked her, or – "W-what? Why? What's wrong?"

Laura sighed. "She said she wasn't feeling well about twenty minutes ago. At first I thought maybe she'd just eaten too much or was overtired, but she threw up a few minutes ago and doesn't seem to be feeling any better. I think she may have a little fever, but I can't tell for sure. Do you think you can come get her? Or should I call Mark or Lexie? I know you must have your hands full already with Jasmine –"

Callie briefly considered the offer. Jasmine had stopped screaming, at least for the moment, but the baby was obviously tired and was bound to be fussy. But her need to see in person that Sofia was okay won out, and that need only intensified when she heard Sofia crying in the background. Callie's plaintive heartstrings made the decision for her. "No, no, it's okay. I'll be right there. Tell Sofia I'm on my way. Thanks, Laura."

Callie ended the call and sighed. "Change of plans," she said to the baby in her arms. Though she was tired and fussy, as Callie had predicted she would be, Jasmine seemed to refuse to fall asleep just yet. "We're going to go pick up your sister. She's not feeling so hot, so we're going to go get her. I bet you'll be excited to see her, huh?" As tired as Jasmine was, Callie was sure that seeing Sofia would perk her up. The little girl absolutely adored her sister, following her around as soon as she could crawl. Both Callie and Arizona had been surprised when Jasmine's first word was "kitty" and not "Sofia." For her part, Sofia genuinely loved her little sister, but she also craved her own space and tended to get annoyed when Jasmine glommed onto her too frequently.

"Sofie?" Jasmine lifted her head, looking around the room for the sister in question. Callie hadn't even used Sofia's name in the sentence, but Jasmine had known anyway that she was being talked about.

"Yep, we're going to go get her. She's feeling pretty yucky, so we're going to take care of her and cheer her up." Callie slipped into her shoes and jacket, slipped a pacifier into her purse to pre-empt Jasmine's impending fussiness, and the pair was out the door.

When Laura Connelly opened her front door after Callie knocked, a pale, teary Sofia and a wide-eyed Megan were on her heels.

"Mama," Sofia whimpered, attaching herself to Callie's side.

"Sofie," Jasmine mumbled sleepily around the pacifier in her mouth. A hint of a smile played on her face. Sofia either didn't notice or felt too crappy to return it.

"Hi, baby," Callie said softly, smoothing her daughter's hair with the hand not holding Jasmine. Right away she could tell that Sofia had a fever. "Not feeling so good, huh?"

Sofia looked up at Callie with big, baleful eyes glistening with tears. "I threw up."

"I heard," Callie murmured. "I'm sorry. Throwing up's no fun, is it?"

Sofia shook her head. "Can we go see Mommy?" While Sofia wasn't one hundred percent clear on what Arizona did when she was at the hospital, she did understand that it had to do with taking care of sick and hurting kids. It came as no surprise, then, that whenever Sofia was the least bit under the weather, all she wanted was Arizona. There had been one incident when Sofia had fallen on the playground at the hospital daycare and skinned her knee and wouldn't calm down until Arizona came and kissed it.

Callie hesitated. On the one hand, Sofia probably had a twenty-four hour bug, and both she and Jasmine would feel much better after a good night's sleep. On the other hand, Callie's mind still raced with other things a stomachache and vomiting could mean: appendicitis, a bad infection, salmonella, even cancer. For her own peace of mind, she had to admit she really did want her wife to give Sofia a once-over.

"That's not a bad idea," she finally said. "Let's go try to find her. Grab your backpack and let's go."

Sofia grimaced as she bent down to pick up her Hello Kitty backpack. Her stomachache was just that tiny bit better if she stayed still, and bending over was especially painful. It felt like someone was inside her stomach, grabbing and squeezing at it. "It hurts, Mama," she whimpered, chin quivering.

"I know, _cariña_," Callie soothed. "We're going to go make it better, okay?" Sofia nodded.

"Dr. Callie?" Megan spoke for the first time since Callie had arrived, gazing up at her, wide-eyed and solemn. "Is Sofia gonna be okay?"

Callie nodded. "She'll be fine, sweetie. I promise." She flashed Megan a smile, and Megan managed one in return. Sofia and Megan had seen each other through scraped knees and elbows and the sore throat that had gotten Megan sent home from school last winter. But Callie knew it was an entirely different ballgame for a six-year-old to see her best friend go from perfectly fine to throwing up, running a fever, and grimacing in pain. "Sofia, baby, ready to go? Can you walk?" Sofia nodded weakly, taking Callie's free hand. She pressed her other hand to her abdomen, hoping it would soothe the pain a little. It didn't, really, but Sofia opted to keep her hand there just in case.

"Bye, Mrs. Laura," Sofia said softly. "Sorry I threw up at your house."

Laura chuckled. "Don't worry about it, honey. We'll see you back here when you're feeling better."

Callie shot Laura a grateful smile and managed her two children, one having finally succumbed to sleep and the other still whimpering in pain, out of the house and into the car.

* * *

><p>Thanks to the hour, there wasn't much traffic between the Connellys' house and the hospital, but for a little girl whose stomachache just wouldn't let up, the drive was far too long. Aware both that Jasmine was currently asleep and that crying heavily seemed to make the pain worse, Sofia stayed relatively quiet.<p>

"How are you doing back there, baby?" Callie broke the silence, eyeing Sofia through the rearview mirror.

"It hurts," Sofia whimpered in reply. "Are we almost there?"

"Almost," Callie promised. "Just a few more minutes. Did you and Megan have fun?" She tried to help Sofia think about something else.

"Yeah," Sofia said softly. "We watched _Beauty and the Beast_."

"A classic," Callie affirmed.

"Yeah. And Riley licked my feet for almost the whole time." Sofia smiled, just a little, as she described the antics of Megan's big, fluffy golden retriever.

"He likes you."

"I think I like Sonny better," Sofia mused. Sonny was a black lab, roughly the same size as Riley but more rambunctious. He had two settings: nonstop running and jumping, and asleep with his head on someone's lap. "He's funny."

"Funny Sonny," Callie quipped.

Sofia laughed at the rhyme and then abruptly stopped, grimacing and holding her stomach. "Ow."

Callie choked back her panic for the time being and maneuvered the car into a parking space as close as she could get to the hospital's main entrance. "We're here," she said with much more conviction than she felt. "I'm going to grab Jasmine. Can you get out of the car by yourself?"

"Yeah," Sofia said, tone wavering. "It hurts." She blinked back tears.

"I know, honey," Callie breathed. "Nice and slow. We'll be talking to Mommy before you know it."

Sofia nodded, chin quivering, as she maneuvered herself first out of her booster seat and then out of the car. "Okay."

Callie breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Lexie in the hospital lobby. "Lexie!" she called out, hoping the noise alone would get her attention. Callie was balancing a sleeping Jasmine against her shoulder with one hand, and Sofia was tightly clutching the other one.

"Hey!" Lexie exclaimed, approaching the trio. "What's going on?" She took in Sofia's tearstained face and the harried, nervous state Callie seemed to be in. "Is everything okay?"

"I hope so," Callie sighed. "Sofia got sick at her sleepover, so we're going to find Arizona. You haven't seen her recently, have you?"

Lexie thought for a moment. "She got out of surgery about twenty minutes ago. She's probably charting."

Callie breathed in relief again, thankful that Arizona would likely be easy to find. "Are you busy?"

Lexie shook her head. "I was going to go home. Why? Do you need me to take Jasmine?"

"That would be _amazing_," Callie said. "Thank you so much. "

"It's no problem," Lexie said, smiling. She had really come to love Sofia – and now Jasmine – over the years. The girls spent every other weekend with her and Mark. During the week, either Sofia or Jasmine usually spent the night without the company of the other one, ensuring that both girls got their own uninterrupted time with Mama, Mommy, Daddy, and Lexie. About six months after Jasmine was born, Mark and Lexie moved into a new apartment building. They didn't feel they needed a house, but they did need an apartment big enough for each of the girls to have her own bedroom, so they now lived in a nice, spacious apartment on a block about fifteen minutes from the hospital.

"She should sleep through the night," Callie told Lexie. "I'll give you a call after we finish up here and let you know what's going on. Seriously, thank you."

Lexie just smiled as she reached out to take the sleeping baby from Callie. "I'm sorry you're not feeling well, Sofia," she said. "But you're really lucky, because your mommy is the best kid doctor in the whole hospital. Probably in the whole world."

Sofia smiled weakly. "I know."

* * *

><p>Callie and Sofia found Arizona finishing a chart at the nurses' station on the pediatrics floor.<p>

"Mommy!" Sofia called.

Arizona's head snapped up. "Sofia? Why aren't you at—" She spotted Callie walking toward her, looking frazzled and slightly panicked. "Callie? What's going on? Is everyone okay? Where's Jasmine?"

"Jasmine's with Lexie," Callie began.

"I don't feel good, Mommy," Sofia said, letting go of Callie's hand to hug Arizona around the waist. "My tummy hurts. I threw up at Megan's house."

"Oh, no!" Arizona exclaimed sympathetically. "I'm so sorry to hear that, sweetie. That's no fun at all."

"She has a fever, too," Callie supplied. "I can't tell how high it is, but it's definitely something. Her stomach's really been hurting her. Doesn't seem to be getting any better. She needs a—"

"Okay," Arizona cut in, shooting Callie a reassuring look. "Let's all stay calm. We'll take a look, but I bet it's a virus that'll be gone by morning. You two get settled in that exam room over there, and I'll find a nurse and meet you in there." Callie nodded.

"I wanna stay with you, Mommy," Sofia mumbled into Arizona's lab coat.

"It's okay, Sofia. I'll be back in just a minute. Here, you hold on to my stethoscope. I bet if you ask nicely, Mama will let you listen to her heart." She winked at Callie, who smiled in return. It was amazing how just five minutes in her wife's presence made Callie's nerves virtually dissipate.

"Okay!" Arizona said warmly a short time later, entering the exam room with a nurse beside her. "This is Maggie. She's my super-special assistant who's going to help me take care of you. She went to school and learned all the latest approaches to taking care of little girls named Sofia. Can you believe how we lucked out tonight?" Arizona smiled at Sofia, and out of the corner of her eye, she was fairly certain she saw Callie shake her head and stifle a laugh. "And," Arizona continued, winking at Sofia, who was smiling softly, "I'm Dr. Robbins. It's a pleasure to meet you, Sofia. I must say, you have a beautiful name." She turned to Callie. "And you must be…Mrs. Sofia," she said. "Interesting, it doesn't say anything in Sofia's chart about her having an astonishingly beautiful mother. It's _very_ nice to meet you, ma'am. Maggie, can you make a note in Sofia's chart?"

Callie laughed out loud in spite of herself and just barely avoided making a crack about bedside manner in Sofia's presence.

Sofia, on the other hand, cracked up laughing, but abruptly stopped as it made the pain in her stomach so much worse. "Ow," she whimpered, tears springing to her eyes. "Ow. Mommy, I don't feel good. It really hurts."

Dropping the act immediately, Arizona turned to Maggie. "Abdominal pain made worse by laughing." She looked to Sofia. "Does laughing always make it hurt worse?" Sofia merely nodded, too afraid to do anything more, lest it cause more pain. "How about crying?" She nodded again. "When you walk, does it hurt more than if you sit still?" Another nod. Arizona sighed. She already didn't like where this was going. "Okay, Sofia. You're doing awesome, baby. One more question, okay? Can you answer it for me while Maggie takes your blood pressure?"

"Okay."

"Think about all the numbers between one and ten. Can you think of them all?" Sofia nodded. "If the number one is no pain at all, and the number ten is the worst pain you can think of, what number is your tummyache?"

Sofia burst into tears. She didn't completely understand the question, and she didn't know how to answer it. She was tired, her stomach hurt, and she just wanted Mommy to fix it. "I don't know!" she hiccupped. "It just really, really hurts!"

Arizona sighed again. She looked at Callie, who was looking back at her with a wide-eyed, frightened gaze. She shook her head just enough for Callie to see it. Callie gulped and nodded in response.

"Mommy," Sofia choked, recapturing Arizona's attention. Mommy, I –" All three adults saw Sofia's body heave, but it was Maggie who thrust a basin in front of her just in time for her to throw up into it.

"How does your tummy feel now?" Maggie asked after Sofia had finished. "Is it better at all?"

Sofia thought for a moment and then shook her head. "No. It's the same. It hurts!" She began crying anew.

"Oh, baby," Arizona whispered, choking back tears of her own. "I'm going to need you to lie down on the table for me so I can check out your tummy, but I think we need a hug first." Sofia nodded, tears tapering off just slightly at the suggestion. "Come here." Sofia hopped down from the chair she'd been sitting in and fell into Arizona's open arms. "It's going to be okay," Arizona promised. "We're going to make it better. I know it hurts right now, but it's going to be okay. I promise." She said the words as much for Sofia's benefit as for Callie's and her own. When she chanced a look at Callie, it seemed that Callie had calmed slightly, but was clearly in distress over seeing and hearing her daughter in so much pain.

"Lexie says you're the best kid doctor in the whole world," Sofia said once she'd calmed down.

Arizona chuckled. "Well, Lexie is very smart. She usually knows what she's talking about." She smoothed Sofia's hair. "Hop up onto the table for me, okay? Maggie's going to take your temperature and listen to your heart, and then we'll take a look at your tummy."

Sofia reluctantly extracted herself from Arizona's embrace and climbed onto the exam table with the help of a stool. While Maggie went about her business, Arizona took the opportunity to sit down next to Callie. "I'm thinking appendicitis," she whispered solemnly. "We won't know for sure until we palpate her abdomen, but it seems consistent so far."

Callie nodded. "I kind of had a feeling," she admitted.

"Temperature is 102," Maggie called. "Heart and lungs sound great."

Callie squeezed Arizona's hand before Arizona could stand up. "She's going to be fine," she said, though it was unclear whose benefit she was saying it for. "Appendectomies are simple. Quick. Low-risk."

Arizona nodded, but her head was spinning. She felt like the room was closing in on her, like there wasn't enough air in it. She wanted to run away, to shut herself up in her office and write off this case as one she simply wasn't interested in taking. She knew, logically, that if Sofia really did need surgery, she wouldn't be able to operate anyway, but Arizona wanted to deny all involvement. This couldn't be happening. Sofia couldn't need surgery, not again. Not her sweet, precious little baby who'd been through more in the first month of her life than most people went through in a lifetime. Arizona couldn't do it. She just couldn't. She couldn't be a doctor and a mother at the same time. It simply wasn't possible.

But she had to. There wasn't any other choice. Sofia needed her.

"All right, sweetie." Arizona took as deep a breath as she could manage and stood up. You're doing _amazing_ so far. Can you lie down on your back for me?" Sofia obeyed. "Okay, now I'm going to press very gently on your tummy. Your job is to tell me if it hurts. Can you do that?" Sofia glanced at Callie, who mustered a smile and nodded encouragingly.

"Okay," Sofia said quietly. She relaxed as she felt her mommy's fingers on her stomach. It almost felt like a massage. This wasn't going to be so bad. She could totally do this.

Arizona pressed on a sensitive spot and Sofia screamed in pain. Callie jumped up to console her while Arizona turned away from the scene. Despite all of her best effort, a tear escaped and she hastily wiped it away. Sofia was in pain and she had caused it. Arizona knew the thought was irrational, but she thought it anyway, over and over on a continuous loop.

Sofia did in fact need surgery, and she needed it tonight. There was nothing Arizona could do to keep from flashing back to a day seven years ago. Sofia was impossibly tiny then, and Callie still had a long recovery ahead of her. The circumstances tonight were completely different, but the thoughts and emotions behind them, Arizona discovered, were almost exactly the same.

Fear. Helplessness. Irrational guilt. The need to be strong even though she felt like crumbling.

"We're definitely looking at appendicitis," Arizona said to the room. "Sofia," she said, approaching the exam table, where Sofia was sitting up and leaning against Callie. "There's a little, tiny organ near your tummy called an appendix. Sometimes the appendix gets sick, and in order to make you better, we have to take the appendix out."

"How do you take it out?" Sofia sniffled.

Arizona sighed. "You…we do an operation."

Sofia's eyes bugged out, which would have been comical in a different situation. "I have to get an operation?" she cried.

"Yes, but –"

"No! I don't want one!"

"Sofia –"

"I want to go home!"

"It's the only way to make you better, baby," Callie interjected. "Sometimes people get hurt or sick and we have to operate on them to make them better."

Arizona nodded. "I know it's scary. But the good news is that Mama and me, Daddy and Lexie, Cristina, Teddy, Meredith, Derek, Alex…we're all surgeons. We all operate on people. That's all we do all day. We're all _really _good at it." She nodded and smiled, coming across much more confident than she felt.

"She's right," Callie confirmed. "If you need an operation, this is definitely the place you want to be."

"So…" Sofia stammered. "You…you're gonna cut me open?"

Arizona realized with a start that they wouldn't be able to this surgery laparoscopically. Sofia had had heart surgery as a baby, which meant that she was at a higher risk for complications during any subsequent surgery. Arizona knew, of course, that an open appendectomy was really just as simple as a laparoscopic one, but the realization just added a whole new level of complication and anxiety for her. She looked at Callie, who was blinking rapidly. She appeared to have had the same thought.

Arizona took a deep breath. "I'm going to go get an operating room set for you," she said. "And then I'll explain to you exactly how it's going to work." In reality, she was going to book an OR, but also find someone to do the surgery – two someones, she realized, as they'd need a cardio surgeon on standby just in case. Arizona reminded herself that the "just in case" was extremely unlikely; Sofia hadn't had any health scares since she came home from the hospital as a baby. Still, her mind reeled with what-ifs. She looked at the little girl on the exam table – her daughter – and the woman next to her, stroking her hair – her wife. Everything was at stake. "I love you both so much," Arizona said fiercely, hugging Sofia and then Callie. "Everything's going to be _fine_. I promise." She didn't allow herself to look back at the two nearly identical worried faces as she and Maggie left the room.

While Maggie was on the phone booking the OR, Arizona stood behind the nurses' station, trying to figure out what to do next. She leaned on the desk and rested her head in her hands. This was all too much. What if she couldn't find the right people to do the surgery? This wasn't just any appendectomy; this was her daughter's appendectomy. She wasn't going to let just anybody do it. It had to be someone she trusted implicitly.

"Hey, you okay?" Alex's voice startled Arizona from her anxious thinking.

"Alex. Thank god." Arizona breathed an internal sigh of relief. "I need you to do an open appy." Arizona couldn't think of anyone she'd rather have perform Sofia's surgery than Alex Karev. She'd trained the man herself, and she'd watched him grow from a surly resident into a competent, confident, if still slightly surly, attending. He was an excellent doctor, he adored Sofia, and he genuinely liked and respected Arizona and her family. Knowing he would be the one to work on Sofia ratcheted Arizona's anxiety down at least a notch.

"What? When?" Alex asked. "Why can't you do it? I thought you didn't have any other surgeries scheduled tonight."

Shaking her head, Arizona said, "I can't do it."

Alex scoffed incredulously. "Why not?"

"Because…" Arizona closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Because you're going to be operating on Sofia."

Alex's eyes widened. "Sofia? As in – Sofia? Oh my god. Are you okay?" Suddenly empathetic, he reached over and placed a hand on Arizona's shoulder.

Arizona nodded, shrugging off his concern. "I'm fine. I just need you to do it as soon as possible. Can you get her into a room and start prepping her? She's in exam seven right now with Callie."

"Of course," Alex agreed easily. "Is there anything else you need? Does Mark know?"

"Shoot," Arizona muttered. "I haven't called him yet. Callie might have, but if she hasn't, no, he doesn't know."

"I'll try to get a hold of him," Alex promised, turning on his heel and heading for exam seven.

"Alex," Arizona called after him. He turned around, looking at her expectantly. Arizona choked up, suddenly unsure of what to say. What were you supposed to say to a colleague and friend who was about to perform surgery on your child? "Please…please take care of her," she finally said. "She…she's really scared."

Alex offered Arizona an understanding smile, understanding Arizona's words both for what they were and for what she didn't say. It didn't take a psychologist to see that Arizona herself was absolutely terrified. Alex always took care of his patients; he was careful, precise, and had gotten to be incredible with children and their families. He knew that as long as Sofia was in his care, Arizona really didn't have anything to worry about. But he also knew that this surgery, while simple, was high-stakes. "Don't worry," he said gently. "I've got this."

Arizona offered him a weak but grateful smile in return.

* * *

><p>"…So then I'm going to cut the appendix out, like this." Alex demonstrated his technique for Sofia with a pencil, which he was pretending was a knife. "Then I'll clean the area to make sure all the germs that are making you sick are all gone, and then I'll sew you up and you'll be good as new."<p>

Once Sofia was settled in her new room on the pediatrics wing, it was just a matter of waiting for the OR to be ready. She was still in a lot of pain – it had only gotten worse since she'd arrived at the hospital an hour or so ago – but it was currently being dulled slightly by the mild painkillers she was on and all of the attention she was getting. Sofia lay propped up in bed. Callie sat in a chair on one side of her, holding her hand, while Alex sat on her other side as he explained the surgery.

"I'm gonna have stitches?" she asked.

Alex nodded. "Yep. They'll feel a little weird at first, but you won't need them for more than a week."

"What are you gonna do with my appendix?"

"After I take it out, I'm going to throw it away."

Sofia whirled around to look anxiously at Callie. "But…but what if I need it?"

"You won't need it," Alex said. "I promise. If you really want me to, I can save it in a jar for you to look at after you wake up."

Sofia was about to rattle off another question when Mark practically fell over himself trying to run into the room.

"Daddy!" Sofia greeted him.

"What's going on?" he cried breathlessly. "I got a message from Karev saying to get to Peds as soon as possible, and that Sofia needed surgery!"

"It's an appy, Mark," Callie reassured him. "She'll be fine. Alex is doing it." She tried to sound calm and collected, but the look Mark shot her told her she'd failed. Callie might not have been as anxious as Arizona was, but she definitely didn't like the idea of either of her children having to go under the knife for any reason. She was a little calmer now that Sofia wasn't screaming in pain, but the whole night had been scary for her, and she wouldn't feel completely at ease until Sofia was out of surgery, awake, and perfectly healthy. She planned to watch the surgery from the gallery – she knew there was no point in even asking to be in the OR even if she promised not to touch or do anything – but truthfully, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to.

Mark surveyed the room. "Where's Arizona?"

"Finding a cardio surgeon," Callie replied. "It's an open appy because of…you know." She didn't want to discuss the trauma of Sofia's infancy in front of her, especially not now. "They're keeping cardio on standby just to be safe."

Mark nodded, looking no less anxious than Callie felt. "How are you doing, munchkin?" he asked, crossing the room to Sofia. "Ready to rock your appendectomy?"

"I'm scared, Daddy," Sofia whimpered, her eyes welling with tears.

Alex stood up. "I'll be back when the OR is ready to take you to surgery," he said. "It should be about fifteen minutes unless cardio isn't here yet." He excused himself from the room to give the family some privacy.

Mark sat down in the chair Alex had been sitting in. "Hey," he said softly, reaching out to smooth Sofia's hair. He cringed inwardly, feeling how feverish she was. "You don't have anything to worry about. Alex is a great surgeon. He's going to take excellent care of you." Sofia didn't say anything, but her lip trembled as tears rolled down her face. "I know it's scary, Sof, but I promise you're going to feel so much better after this is over. Your tummy won't hurt anymore, your fever will go away, and you'll be able to laugh without it hurting. Which is excellent timing, because I just learned a really funny joke and I can't wait to tell you."

Sofia sniffled and managed a smile. "What's it about?"

"I can't tell you," Mark said, mocking offense at having been asked such a question. "That would ruin the joke. You'll have to wait." He squeezed Sofia's shoulder. "You're going to do fine in there," he promised. "Alex is going to take perfect care of you, and then it'll all be over. And we'll all be here when you wake up."

"I love you, Daddy," Sofia murmured.

"I love you too, little bear," Mark said softly as he leaned down to kiss Sofia's forehead. "Give me a kiss." Sofia obliged. "Hey, where's Jasmine?"

"Lexie has her," Callie said, suddenly remembering. "Crap, I was supposed to call her."

She pulled out her phone to make the call just as Cristina poked her head into the room. "Hey, I heard Sofia needed surgery. What's going on?" She'd never admit it, but Cristina loved Sofia, and not a day went by that she didn't absolutely love being her godmother. When she'd heard through the grapevine that the little girl needed surgery, and she needed it tonight, she'd immediately assumed the worst.

"Cristina!" Sofia greeted her. "My tummy is broken!"

"I…wait, what?"

"Appy," Mark mouthed in her direction.

"Oh." Cristina's shoulders relaxed. "So you're getting your appendix out, huh?"

"Yep." Sofia nodded. "My appendix broke my tummy, so Alex is gonna take it out." Cristina smirked. Sofia averted her eyes, suddenly transfixed by the thread pattern on her blanket. "I'm scared," she murmured. She looked back up at Cristina, whose expression was as close to sympathetic as it could get while still being neutral. "Daddy said I shouldn't be scared 'cause Alex is awesome and I'm gonna be fine. But I'm still scared."

"Hey," Cristina said softly, gently grabbing Sofia's foot. "Your daddy is right. You don't need to be scared. Do you want to know why?" Sofia nodded. "Because appies are _so_ boring."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, seriously, you make the incision, you take out the appendix, you stitch it back up. It's over before it even starts. Total snooze-fest."

"So boring even a scrub nurse could do it, right, Cristina?" Callie smirked at Cristina. She just couldn't resist.

"What— how— hey!" Cristina sputtered. "Who told you about that?"

"Who cares?" Callie asked. "The important thing is that I've been waiting to make fun of you for almost seven years."

"Well, why don't you make fun of Teddy?"

"Oh, I did," Callie promised. "But you're standing right here."

"Cristina," Sofia piped up. "Are you gonna come watch Alex take my appendix out? He said he'd put it in a jar so I could see it!"

"I wish I could, kiddo," Cristina replied, squeezing Sofia's foot. "But like I said, _way_ too boring. Besides, I have a valve replacement."

"Oh."

"I'll come visit you after," Cristina promised. "But seriously, don't be scared. You're going to be fine, I promise. You're the bravest kid I know." Despite herself, Cristina blew Sofia a kiss on her way out the door. Mark pretended not to notice. Callie smiled and raised an eyebrow. Sofia blew a kiss in return.

"Mama?" Sofia turned to Callie. "How many kids does she know?"

* * *

><p>"Okay!" Arizona said brightly, swiftly entering Sofia's room, followed by Alex and Teddy, whom she had been beyond thankful to find available. "Who's ready for an appendectomy?" Sofia whimpered and pulled her covers over her face.<p>

Callie watched Arizona. She knew something wasn't right. Arizona was always in good spirits with her patients, of course, but this was different. Her smile was obviously forced, and almost completely fake. The strained tone of her voice told Callie that the brightness wasn't real, either. She had a fairly good idea of what was going on, and truthfully, she'd been wanting to talk to Arizona ever since Sofia's diagnosis had been made. But Arizona had made herself scarce, and Callie hadn't had a chance to go after her.

But watching her now made Callie want to cry. Her wife was so obviously upset and worried, and Callie wanted more than almost anything to make her feel better. Once Sofia was in surgery, they'd have a chance to talk uninterrupted.

"Mommy," Sofia whimpered from under the blanket. "Where were you?"

Arizona swallowed past the lump in her throat. The guilt she felt at not being there for Sofia when she needed her was so strong it was going to give her an ulcer. "Well," she began, sliding into the chair beside Sofia's bed that Mark had vacated for her. "I had to find Teddy. She's the best heart doctor in the whole world."

"Cristina says she's the best heart doctor in the world." Sofia poked her head out.

"It's a shared title," Teddy said before Arizona could say anything. "The world is a really big place, so we need at least two best heart surgeons in it."

"Oh." Sofia seemed satisfied with the answer.

"Anyway," Arizona continued, her eyes sparkling just a tiny bit at the humor she'd managed to find thanks to Teddy, "Sofia, you know how I've told you before that your heart is super special?" Sofia nodded as eagerly as she could. "And how because it's so special, we have to take extra-super-good care of it?" Sofia nodded again. "Well, since Teddy is the best heart doctor in the world, she's going to watch over your heart while Alex takes your appendix out." Sofia smiled. She couldn't wait to tell Zola that she got her very own heart doctor. "So that's where I was, baby," Arizona finished, fingers stroking softly over Sofia's face. "I'm sorry I wasn't in here with you, but I had to find her and make sure she knows how special your heart is. Plus, someone had to tell everyone how brave you're being."

Sofia's eyes widened. "You told _everyone?_" Arizona nodded. "Even Auntie Bailey?"

Arizona winked. "_Especially_ Auntie Bailey."

"What did she say?"

"She said she loves you and that she's not at all surprised that you're so brave."

Sofia smiled as Arizona grasped her hand. "Mommy?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you gonna be in the room when Alex takes my appendix out?"

Arizona shook her head, willing herself not to cry. "No, sweetie. There…there isn't enough room in there. Alex needs space to work."

Panic began to take over Sofia's features. "But…but I want you to stay with me," she stammered as she started to cry again. "I want you to stay with me, Mommy. I want you to hold my hand."

"I wish I could, Sofia." Arizona bit her lip and leaned in to rest her forehead against her daughter's. "I really wish I could be in there with you, but I can't." She squeezed Sofia's hand. "Remember how I showed you the operating room last year? And we looked down at it from that big room with the windows?" Sofia nodded. "I'll be in there. I'll be able to see you. And I'll be watching the whole time."

Sofia was slightly placated, but not really. If she had to have surgery at all, she wanted her mommy right there next to her. "But…" she grasped for words. "But you're the best kid doctor in the whole world. I want you to stay with me." She looked pleadingly at Arizona with fearful, teary eyes.

Callie could see that Arizona was struggling not to lose her composure. She promised herself that as soon as Sofia was wheeled into surgery, she would hold her wife and let her cry for as long as she needed, even if it meant she never made it into the gallery to watch the surgery. Whatever Arizona needed, Callie was more than prepared to do it.

Right now, that meant addressing Sofia's concern. Arizona was opening and closing her mouth, but no words were coming out. "Alex is the other best kid doctor, baby," Callie said. "You know how Teddy and Cristina are both the best heart doctor? Mommy and Alex are both the best kid doctor."

Sofia clutched the hand of Arizona's that was holding hers. "Really, Mommy?"

"Yes," Arizona whispered. "That's exactly right." She shot Callie a thankful look. "Alex is awesome. You know how he got so good at taking out appendixes?"

"How?"

Arizona tapped Sofia on the nose. "I taught him."

"Really? You did?"

"I really did." Arizona nodded, smiling at Sofia. "You're in good hands with Alex, sweetie. You're safe and you're going to be fine. I promise." She gave Sofia a kiss on the cheek, just under her eye. "And I promise I'll be watching the surgery through the window, and I promise I'll be right here when you wake up." She kissed Sofia again, on the forehead this time. "I love you _so_ much, my sweet pea."

Sofia sat up as best she could and threaded her arms around Arizona's neck, burying her face in her chest. "I love you too, Mommy." With Sofia's face hidden, Arizona allowed a few tears to escape.

After an appropriate amount of time had passed, Alex clapped his hands. "So, Sofia, how about we get this show on the road?" Sofia shook her head against Arizona.

"It's going to be okay, baby," Arizona whispered in Sofia's ear, even as she squeezed Sofia a little tighter.

Pulling away only slightly, Sofia pouted up at Arizona. "I'm not a baby."

Arizona cracked a hint of a smile. "Sorry. You're right. I'll tell you what: while Alex is taking out your appendix, Mama and I will try to think of something new to call you."

"Oh, good." Callie smirked. "I was worried you were going to grow up without ten nicknames. This is a big relief." Sofia smiled in spite of herself. "Now get over here and give me a kiss."

Sofia obliged, disentangling herself from Arizona to squirm over to the other side of the bed and give Callie a big hug and a kiss. "Love you, Mama."

"_Te amo m__á__s, mi cari__ñ__a_."

Reluctantly, Sofia pulled back from Callie and settled against the bed, allowing Alex to unlock it and begin wheeling it out of the room. Callie and Arizona both stood up. Teddy followed behind Alex, running a comforting hand across Arizona's shoulders as she went.

Mark jogged to catch up with them, but Callie hung back with Arizona, who was beginning to unravel. "Hey," she said, ducking her head to catch Arizona's eye as she stood up from her chair. She took the three steps to Arizona's side and laid a hand on her shoulder.

Arizona just shook her head as she burst into tears, collapsing into Callie's waiting arms. "I can't," she sobbed. "I can't."

"What can't you do, Arizona?" Callie asked softly, running a hand up and down her back.

"I can't…I can't _do_ this again!"

"What's that?" Callie was ninety-eight percent sure she knew what Arizona was talking about, but she wanted to hear Arizona say it herself.

"I can't see my baby lie on an operating table while someone cuts into her. I can't watch surgeons stand over her body making sure she lives, and I can't watch her heart monitors and worry that they're going to stop at any second. I can't do it, Callie. Not _again_."

"Arizona," Callie murmured. "You don't have to watch. No one's making you."

"I _promised_ her!" Arizona cried. "I promised her without even thinking. She's my baby and she needs me. _I _need to be there for her. I need to see that she's okay. So yes, I do have to watch."

"Okay," Callie breathed, rubbing Arizona's back. "Okay. I know. Trust me, I don't like it either. But it's going to be okay. She's going to be fine."

"You didn't _see_ her!" Arizona all but screamed. "You didn't see her when she was born. She was so tiny. She was the size of my hand and she-she wasn't breathing, Callie. I thought she wasn't going to live. You didn't see her a month later when she was lying on a table in the OR having her heart repaired, and you didn't see her when she almost coded! Do you know how tiny a baby looks on the table?" She dissolved into tears once again. "I…I can't go through this again!"

Callie blinked, letting a few tears of her own fall. Arizona was right. Callie hadn't seen Sofia at her worst. At the time, she would have given anything to be able to spend time with her baby, and now she felt like she would give anything to take away all the hurt and fear Arizona still carried with her. Callie was worried, of course; after all, her baby was about to have surgery, but she didn't feel what Arizona felt. She didn't see Sofia in her hospital bed and flash back to images that haunted her sleep.

"Arizona," Callie said softly. "You're right. I didn't see her then. But I see her now. I see that she's strong and healthy, and I see that she's in the care of two of the best surgeons in this hospital. If you don't want to watch the surgery, I completely understand, and so will Sofia. She adores you, Arizona. No matter what you do, she's still going to think you hung the…what's that expression?"

"The moon," Arizona supplied. "And the stars."

"Sheesh, don't get cocky," Callie teased. "Anyway, Sofia loves you no matter what. So does Jasmine. And so do I." She gave Arizona a chaste kiss on the lips.

"I love you, Calliope," Arizona said, nuzzling her face into Callie's neck. "I do want to watch the surgery, though. I need to. For myself as much as for Sofia."

"Then we'll watch the surgery," Callie said firmly. "What do you need? Tell me what I can do."

"I need you," Arizona said without a second of hesitation. "I need you to sit next to me and hold my hand. If I can't watch, I need you to tell me what's happening while I have my face buried in your shoulder. When it's over, I need you to hold me when I start crying because I'm so relieved. I just…I just need you."

"You have me," Callie promised. "You absolutely have me, Arizona. Always." She held onto Arizona a few seconds longer. "Let's go watch an appendectomy," she finally said. "Cristina says they're really boring."

Arizona snorted. "So boring she leaves them for scrub nurses."

* * *

><p>Mark was already sitting in the front row of the gallery when Callie and Arizona arrived. He was the only one there, save for a few interns sitting in the back corner. "You didn't miss anything," he told them. "They just explained anesthesia to her. I think they're administering it now." Arizona sat down beside Mark; Callie sat beside Arizona. Callie had barely gotten settled in her seat before Arizona leaned heavily into Callie's side and latched onto her arm. Callie dropped a kiss on Arizona's head. All three parents watched anxiously as the scene below them unfolded.<p>

"All right, Sofia," the anesthesiologist was saying. "I'm going to put this mask over your nose and mouth. You're going to start getting sleepy, but I want you to count backwards from one hundred. Can you do that?"

"I think so," Sofia said.

The anesthesiologist smiled. "Good. You'll be asleep before you know it, and the next thing you know, you'll be waking up in recovery. You won't feel a thing."

"Is my mommy here?" Sofia asked anxiously.

Alex glanced up into the gallery. Arizona looked absolutely terrified, but she managed to give him a slight wave. "She's here," he told Sofia with a smile. "She's waving and everything. Now, let's start counting backwards from a hundred. I'll race you."

"Me too," Teddy said from her spot.

The mask came over Sofia's face, and she began to count out loud. "A hundred…ninety-nine…ninety-eight…ninety-seven…ninety…uh, six…nine…ninety…nine…"

Alex watched Sofia's face for a few seconds, making sure she was really out, before picking up his scalpel and saying, "Making the first cut."

In the gallery, Arizona squeezed Callie's hand as tightly as she could. Callie pressed another kiss to Arizona's head and didn't even flinch.

* * *

><p>Sofia's eyes fluttered open. She wasn't sure how long she'd been asleep. Her whole body felt heavier than she remembered it, but lighter at the same time. Taking a deep breath, she realized her stomach didn't hurt.<p>

"Mommy?"

"Right here, sweetie," Arizona said, immediately floating into Sofia's line of sight and grasping her hand. "I'm right here."

"Is it over?" Sofia blinked a few times against the bright light of the room.

"It's all over," Arizona said. "Your appendix is out and your heart is perfect. You did _such_ a good job in there, sweet pea. I'm _so_ proud of you. We all are."

Sofia shifted her focus away from Arizona to see who "all" was. Callie sat in a chair next to Sofia's bed. Mark was sitting in another chair near the foot of the bed while Teddy and Alex stood in the corner. Cristina hovered in the doorway, talking to Bailey. There were so many bodies crammed into the room that there wouldn't have been space for a stick figure.

"How do you feel?" Arizona asked.

"Weird. Good." Sofia turned back to Arizona. "Did you see me?"

Arizona nodded and smiled. "Mama, Daddy, and I had front-row seats."

"Was I asleep for a long time?" Sofia furrowed her brow. "Did I snore?"

"You were asleep for a while," Arizona replied, chuckling. "Anesthesia can take over an hour to wear off. And as far as I know, you didn't snore."

"Hey, Sof, you're awake." Alex approached the bed. "You did great. You're on some painkillers right now, but when they wear off, your stomach's probably going to hurt a little. It's going to be sore for a few days, so you need to take it easy for a little while, okay?"

Sofia nodded. "Okay."

"Oh, and I saved you something." Alex reached into his lab coat pocket and took out a small jar. He handed it to Sofia.

"Whoa!" she exclaimed, eyes lighting up. "Is that my appendix?"

"Yep. Tiny, isn't it? Hard to believe it was making you so sick."

Sofia examined it for another minute. "Can I keep it?" She looked hopefully at Callie.

"Some parents get trophies and framed art projects." Callie rolled her eyes. "I get an appendix in a jar."

"Well, I've got to get back to work," Alex said. "I just wanted to check on you when you woke up. Take care of yourself, Sofia." He held out his fist for Sofia to pound, which she did.

"I should go, too," Teddy said. "You really did do great, Sofia. Your heart is so perfect I didn't have to do anything."

"See?" Cristina piped up from the door. "I told you appies are boring."

Callie laughed and disguised it with a cough.

Bailey just shook her head as she walked up to Sofia's bedside. "I'm glad to see you awake, sweetie," she said. "You look like you're feeling better already. You'll come visit me when you're all better and tell me how school is going?"

Sofia nodded vigorously. "I'm going to be in first grade next year!"

"You'll have to catch me up!" Bailey said. "You're growing up so fast. You come see me as soon as you're all better, okay?"

"Okay!"

Bailey turned and left the room, leaving Sofia with Callie, Arizona, Mark, and Cristina.

"So," Cristina said, sitting down on the foot of Sofia's bed. "Be honest. How was it?"

"I don't know!" Sofia giggled, grimacing only slightly at the residual pain of laughing. At least with the painkillers, it hurt significantly less than it had before. "I was asleep!"

"Aha!" Cristina exclaimed. "So boring you fell asleep. I knew it!"

"Cristina!" Sofia groaned. "It wasn't boring!"

"How would you know? You were asleep." Cristina stood up and leaned over to ruffle Sofia's hair. "I've got to get going. I just wanted to check in. Love you, kid." She turned and left.

Callie raised her eyebrows. "Did Cristina just say…?"

"Daddy," Sofia said. "What's the joke you're gonna tell me?"

"I'll tell it to you later," Mark replied. "In the meantime, there's someone else outside who can't wait to see you."

Sofia furrowed her brow. Who could be left?

"Sofie!" Jasmine bounced in Lexie's arms, a giant grin on her face.

"She's been asking about you for hours," Lexie said. "She missed you."

"Aww, I missed my baby!" Arizona reached out and took Jasmine from Lexie's arms. Arizona was in much better spirits now that Sofia was awake and seemed to be doing great. "Come here, chickadee. Did you miss me at all, or just your sister?"

"Sofie!"

"Rejected by a twenty-two-month-old," Arizona remarked. "Nice." Arizona stepped close enough to the bed to allow Jasmine to grab one of Sofia's hands.

"Hi, Jazzy," Sofia greeted her sister. "Sorry if you missed me. I had to get my appendix out. If you ever have to get yours out, try to get Alex for your doctor. He's super good at appendixes. Mommy taught him. And he'll let you keep it!"

"I believe I get the final say in that," Callie interjected.

"Sofie!" Jasmine said again. "Go home?"

"Probably tonight," Arizona said before Sofia could even ask the question. "Alex will want to make sure you're healing well, but we'll have to ask him to know for sure."

"Can Megan come visit?" Sofia asked. "I want to show her my appendix!"

"If she can't make it today, she can definitely come visit you at home," Callie replied. "Are you sure she's going to want to see it?"

Sofia shrugged. "It's really cool."

Callie laughed and reached out to smooth Sofia's hair. "I am so proud of you, non-baby," she said. "You were so brave today. So, so brave." She leaned over and kissed Sofia's forehead. Sofia smiled and nuzzled Callie for a moment before looking to Arizona, who was nodding and smiling, and then at Mark, who was laughing at something Lexie had just said to him.

"'Non-baby' was the best we could come up with in less than an hour," Arizona filled in.

Sofia smiled. "You can just call me Sofia if you want."

"Sofie!" Jasmine cried.

"Hey, Sofia," Mark began. "What's a pirate's favorite letter of the alphabet?"

Everyone looked at him expectantly.

"'Arr'?" Lexie asked.

"That's what you would think," Mark said proudly. "But actually, it's the 'C'!"

Everyone groaned. Jasmine giggled.

Sofia cracked up laughing. She was pleased to find that it didn't hurt at all.

* * *

><p>"Hey." Callie approached Arizona while Sofia was preoccupied with something Mark and Lexie were talking about. She laid a hand on the small of her wife's back. "Sofia's not the only one I'm proud of right now, you know." Arizona looked up at Callie quizzically. "You did great, Arizona. I know how hard that was for you. I know how scared you were."<p>

Arizona smiled slightly and cast her eyes downward, embarrassed at the praise. "Yeah, well."

"No, really." Callie gently hooked a finger from her other hand under Arizona's chin, forcing her to make eye contact. "You were amazing today. I mean, you're amazing every day, but today I'm making a big deal out of it, so deal with it."

Arizona chuckled. "You drive a hard bargain."

"Yes, I do," Callie said firmly. "And I didn't hear you complaining about that the other night."

"Calliope!" Arizona gasped. "Our children are two feet away!"

Callie smirked. "Well, remind me to show you more of my bargaining skills later, then," she said. "But seriously, Arizona, you're awesome. You're an incredible doctor _and_ an amazing mother. I know that's not easy." Arizona made a muffled noise of agreement. "But I don't know what I would have done without you last night and this morning. Thank you." She smiled lovingly at Arizona.

"I love you, Calliope," Arizona said softly, super-magic smile firmly in place.

"I love you too," Callie said. "Now what do you say I use my bargaining abilities to convince our daughter to leave her appendix in a jar at the hospital?"

Arizona laughed. "I say that's an excellent use of your skills."

They turned to look at Sofia, who was proudly showing off said appendix to Lexie.

Callie groaned. "We're going to be that couple with body parts in jars, aren't we?"

Grinning brightly, Arizona looked at Mark and said, "She can keep it at her dad's house."

Callie laughed and patted Arizona on the back. "Now _that's_ a bargain."


End file.
